Testimonials

What Akeno customers are saying

Alexia Harmon

Akeno have provided invaluable support on a number of different projects throughout the last 18 months, including support on education and preparation for the transition to a direct sales model as well as a lead partner for our Consumer Digital Experience Team. Their working style is collaborative, proactive and efficient, no task is too big or small, but the value they bring immeasurable, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.

Alexia Harmon, Consumer Digital Experience Lead, Volvo Cars UK

Nicole1

Akeno have been incredibly supportive, readily available and a fantastic asset to myself and our team as we work through the complexity of moving to a direct model. Their experience has really accelerated our thinking and enabled us to plan ahead with confidence.

Nicole Melillo Shaw, Consumer Director, Volvo Cars UK

We have had the pleasure of working with Akeno on a strategic project for Volvo Cars UK. Their support and expertise have been invaluable, from driving the project forward to bringing their wealth of automotive and consumer expertise to the table, all in a concise and proactive way to shape the overall solution. Working with Akeno has felt like having an extended team, their attitude and ability to roll up their sleeves and dive into all elements of the detail has moved the project forward in a positive direction. We wouldn’t hesitate to work with them on any future project.

— Volvo Cars UK
Sam Burton

Exceptional project delivery" is one of Kerry's key strengths which immediately stands out from our time together within the automotive industry. Kerry's ability to partner both the business and IT functions to drive results was critical to the value she added to the high profile finance/IT project we were both involved in, and ultimately its successful delivery. As the finance contact responsible for delivery within the brand, I relied heavily on Kerry's strong organisation and communication skills to ensure project milestones were achieved within the tight delivery schedule required for the Group. Kerry has a fantastic personal working style, engaging and personable, whilst always keeping her finger on the pulse with every element of a project from conception to delivery.

I worked closely with Kerry on the opening of the two London shopping mall stores for SEAT UK where she was, frankly speaking, my right-hand woman. She joined the project team a few months in when we had a requirement for additional business analyst support. She settled into the team and immediately started to add value. Kerry is exactly the person you need to help bring order to chaos, help find innovative solutions and generally bring a smile to work and motivate the team. It doesn't matter how much I threw at her, she maintained her swan-like image! Kerry isn't the sort of person who only sticks to her job description, to help meet the objective and deadline, she'll gladly roll her sleeves up and get stuck in - a real team player!

After moving to Volvo UK, I was asked to lead a project to bring about an e-commerce platform for the retailer network. Again light on resource, I immediately knew who I needed on my team and approached Kerry to come and join. Within half a day, Kerry had absorbed the project requirements and had started work on deliverables that very afternoon.

Kerry is a highly capable and knowledgeable individual. A very safe pair of hands who can be 100% relied upon to deliver. To describe Kerry as a Business Analyst however, does her a dis-service, she's much more than that - able to offer guidance to your team, provide recommendations and offer relevant insight to help move your project forward.

I have no hesitation in recommending Kerry to anyone who needs a "Solutionist" to come and join their team and I genuinely hope to work with Kerry again in the future.

— Nicola Murphy,  Customer Experience, Innovation & Change Management Expert

I had the opportunity to work with Kerry in a process to implement a new system to monitor the JLR dealers financials performance. I was the responsible for the implementation in the Latin America and Kerry was our main contact at the headquarters in the UK. During this period Kerry demonstrated key skills to coordinate the project; very organised, transparent, capable to deal with different requests at the same time and manage different cultures involved at this project. The project was successfully implemented in Latin America, with "no pain" thanks to Kerry. I do recommend Kerry to any strategic-thinking position.

— Mauro Frateschi Sales, Network Development & Performance Manager Jaguar Land Rover Latin America

I have worked with Kerry and engaged her on a number of complex projects. She is extremely resourceful and flexible ... she is happy to take on challenges that others would shy away from and always has a positive 'can do' attitude. She has a breadth of capabilities and is always keen to apply them to whatever the challenge is. She also does not shy away from learning new skills and asking for feedback and help. Her work rate is high and she is pleasure to work with. I would recommend her, and I look forward to continuing to work with her on future assignments.

— Simon Knocker Managing Director, thebigteam

Kerry has been and continues to be one of the most positive, professional, inspiring, creative and empathetic people I have been lucky enough to work with in my career to date. I always view Kerry, and describe Kerry to others, as a wonderful role model of how to do a great job, with a ready smile and positive attitude, even in the face of many obstacles.

Kerry is able to quickly understand what the requirements for a project are, what the limitations are and who the key stakeholders are. Kerry is brilliant at bringing people together to fulfil the requirements of any project. 

Kerry is a great communicator and excellent at stakeholder management and engagement. Kerry is always committed, loyal, full of great ideas, willing to do whatever is needed to get the job done, intelligent and engaging. I would always highly recommend Kerry.

— Delfina Dos Santos FCCA, Finance Expert

An independent report highlighted the need for process improvements with our social care system, and importantly, the way we reported from it. Our current reporting methods were very manual, meaning access to performance data wasn't as timely as we would have liked. We needed a solution.

The entire team worked in the social care industry for many years, so not only are their solutions tailored to the challenges we face, but they also had first hand experience and expertise with developing effective solutions for those challenges.

The implementation was professional and efficient; as the Programme Director, I was kept updated on progress, and any issues were escalated to me in a timely manner. We worked together with the local teams and the inevitable change management issues were handled in a sensitive and supportive way; the goal being the successful implementation of a new reporting solution in time for the annual statutory return submissions. We took the decision not to run in parallel with the existing methods of preparing the annual returns, which meant that the team HAD to deliver in order for us to meet our statutory, and local, obligations.

I'm pleased to report that they met the challenge and delivered a fully automated performance management system that produced our statutory returns and performance indicators on a daily basis. Better still, there was an entire suite of supporting management information reports as well as another suite of data quality reports; all of which were refreshed automatically overnight, every night. We estimated that the statutory return production alone would save us in excess of 200 days’ worth of work annually, meaning our Performance Team could spend more time analysing the data and working with the business to improve performance, rather than just produce the performance figures.

— Jon Nash, Programme Director, Nottinghamshire County Council

We employed the services of Akeno Ltd in order to maximise our efficiency and productivity. Our specialism is recycling, and I was conscious that we were too close to the detail to be able to identify the opportunities we needed to maximise. 

Kerry came in and completed an exercise to give us a ratified view of where we were at that point in time, along with the issues we were facing. She then shaped a programme of activity to resolve the issues, build on the opportunities, and ultimately, drive our business forward.

The entire programme was efficient and effective from day one. The approach was professional and collaborative, which was important to me as I didn’t want my team to worry about why we were employing the services of an external consultant. The outcome was more than I could’ve hoped, and allowed me to operate my business to its greatest potential.

— Robert White Director, Weee Environmental GB Ltd
Mark Say

Kerry is one of those rare external contractors - she takes full ownership and responsibility for the challenge put in front of her. She brings energy, positivity and a cheerful get up and go to work. She presents engagingly and tailors her output to the relative seniority of her audience. I would not hesitate to recommend her to you. If you have a business change issue then contact Kerry - her only challenge is that because she is so good, she tends to be pretty booked up!

Mark Say, Head of Customer Intelligence, Volkswagen Group UK

Despite joining the project mid-way through, Kerry was outstanding in quickly grasping the subject matter and re-organising the project methodology and stakeholder interactions to produce a successful delivery. Her commitment and diligence was superb and her efforts, often going beyond the call of duty, were much valued.

— Joseph Price, Global Retailer Profitability Team, Global Automotive Brand
Lucy Patterson

I have been fortunate enough to work with Kerry, as we implemented an innovative alternative to purchasing cars with the SEAT automotive brand. Kerry joined the project at a critical and fundamental point, succeeding a previous Project Manager moving to pastures new. Kerry literally hit the ground running, bringing her extensive experience and proven versatility as no challenge can phase her. Kerry is meticulous and competent and I would welcome the opportunity to work with her again in the future.

Lucy Patterson, Project Manager

We (Volvo Car UK) commissioned Kerry to run a piece of work for us last year, as part of a company wide supplier review. This involved interviewing and collating information from across all areas of the business. Kerry's analytical report gave us the evidence base to enable us to make the right decisions, and also ensured that they were based on impartial facts. Kerry worked to a budget, and deadline, and with multiple stakeholders across the company, which meant that we were able to progress other areas of the review in tandem. I would not hesitate to recommend Kerry, she is professional, knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with.

— Jenny Smith, Head of Events, Sponsorship & Communications at Volvo Car UK
Ratan

Kerry is an extremely astute professional with a multitude of core foundational competencies that are absolutely beneficial for organisations looking to go through a transformation or for those who are looking to complement their transformation with enriched processes or capabilities. Kerry is able to drive and support relevant business change activities with her diverse competencies, which is truly a unique value added and packaged service offering - something that you would normally get by engaging larger consultancy firms. Kerry has also effectively played the role of Product Owner and if you are looking for someone to drive a Product visioning, creation and go-to-market strategy, Kerry has all the required competencies in this area. At a foundational level and as an individual, Kerry is pragmatic, results oriented and a transformational leader who cares about people and the organisation that she is engaging with - a truly valuable asset for any organisation.

Ratan Baddipudi, VP Data Engineering & Data Architecture, Electrocomponents Plc

Stuart Copeland

I worked with Kerry on a complex and challenging project at VWG. Kerry was very supportive, tenacious, good humoured and excellent with our stakeholders over the lengthy period of the project. Undoubtedly we will be working together again.

Stuart Copeland, Experienced Programme Leader, Stonac Ltd

Rob Parker

I had the pleasure of working with Kerry over a number of years at VWG. Throughout that time it never ceased to amaze me the grit and determination she showed to plough through extremely complex business requirements and deliver solutions in an innovative and energetic style. Stakeholder management was key and I always had full confidence in Kerry’s ability to communicate, negotiate and interact at all levels of the business. I look forward to working with Kerry again in the future.

Robert Parker, Brand Controller, Audi UK

I had the pleasure of working with Kerry for on a number of Projects at Volkswagen Group UK. Her professionalism and excellent interpersonal skills made her an invaluable member of our project team. She is able to interact with stakeholders at all levels of the business to effectively capture and elucidate requirements for technical teams and suppliers.

— Larry Jaji, Projects Manager, VWG

I was lucky to work with Kerry during my time as SEAT Store Support Manager. As I entered into a completely new position I had a lot to get to grips with and was lucky to have Kerry by my side as the Senior Business Analyst.

Kerry is reliable and hardworking with incredibly high attention to detail. Kerry took complex items and was able to translate them into simplified business processes quickly and with limited face to face time; which also took a lot of pressure off of my role.

I want to thank Kerry for the amount of support and the knowledge she gave to me during my time in SEAT. My role would have been impossible without her.

I highly recommend her to anyone, she would be a huge asset to any company and any project and I truly hope we have the chance to work together in the future, it really was a pleasure to work with her.

— Amy Bridge, SEAT Retail Store Support Manager, SEAT UK
Adisha

Kerry was absolutely instrumental in helping to setup our reporting system at Thurrock. She worked diligently and conscientiously (often at very short notice) and gave some much appreciated credit to the team I work in; right when it mattered the most, to key stakeholders in our project.

Adisha Kariyawasam, Strategic Information Manager, Thurrock Council

Kerry has acted as both trainer and consultant as well as adding an additional, independent line of vetting for candidates represented by my company. I have found her knowledgeable and with integrity. I would wholeheartedly recommend Kerry.

— James Edwards, Business Development Manager, Aspire Group
Ben Needham

I have worked with Kerry and the Akeno team on multiple occasions and would have no hesitation in recommending working with them. Focused on influencing results and making a real difference in business transformation projects, Kerry works hard to deliver lasting change for the better.

Ben Needham, Managing Director, Vertex Intelligent Data


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