Arise Virtual Solutions recently won the prestigious Scholar Award in the 2024 Centrical SELECT Awards. This accolade recognizes organizations that champion hyper-engaging learning environments and foster a culture of continuous development. Through innovative strategies, Arise has set a benchmark for speed-to-proficiency and empowerment in gig work. In this blog, we highlight their achievements through insights from Sonia Brant Mullins, Vice President of Service Partner Experience, and Christopher Carver, Director of Instructional Design at Arise.
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Challenge: Addressing Client Needs with an Agile Learning Model
Arise Virtual Solutions is a leading provider of on-demand customer management and outsourcing services. The company connects businesses with home-based sales, customer, and technical support services, blending crowdsourcing innovation, virtual technology, and operational efficiencies.
“We operate on a part-time model, which offers flexibility to our service partners, but the expectation remains that they achieve the same level of proficiency as in a full-time environment,” shared Sonia Brant Mullins.
Arise faced the challenge of supporting diverse client requirements while training gig workers remotely and part-time. Their unique certification process demanded innovative solutions to ensure part-time learners achieved the same proficiency as their full-time counterparts.
This dual challenge of flexibility and performance required a fresh, agile approach to training.
Key Innovation
Leveraging AI Microlearning and Gamification for Continuous Development
Arise deployed Centrical’s AI-driven tools to deliver microlearning modules, gamified engagement strategies, and performance-driven learning. By tailoring content to individual performance metrics, they ensured service partners achieved speed-to-proficiency.
The adoption of Centrical’s personalized learning solutions revolutionized their training approach, integrating ongoing learning with real-time performance data.
Gamification: Driving Engagement and Continuous Learning in a Virtual Environment
“Gamification has been a game-changer for us in keeping service partners engaged throughout their journey,” said Chris Carver.
Additionally, the gamification elements, including missions, avatars, and microlearning boosts tied to KPIs, played a crucial role in keeping learners engaged in a fully virtual model. As Chris Carver noted, these tools not only enhanced the certification process but also reinforced the philosophy that learning doesn’t stop at certification. By ensuring training remained accessible, relevant, and engaging, Arise empowered service partners to continually improve their performance and succeed in their roles.
Results: Cutting Speed-to-Proficiency by Half
Arise achieved a remarkable 50% reduction in the time required for service partners to reach proficiency.
“The metrics tell a clear story—our service partners are not only more engaged but are delivering better results for our clients. This translates directly to improved customer satisfaction and stronger client relationships,” said Sonia Brant Mullins.
This efficiency uplifted service quality, surpassing industry benchmarks and reinforcing client confidence. Key performance indicators like metric attainment during the blended phase showed significant improvement.
What’s Next
Creating a Seamless and Tailored Learning Journey
“Our goal is to provide a complete learning journey, from the moment someone joins our platform to their daily activities serving our clients,” said Sonia Brant Mullins.
Arise is committed to creating an elevated learning experience that supports service partners throughout their journey. This approach ensures that every aspect of training and development—from onboarding to daily operations—is seamlessly connected. By leveraging Centrical’s tools, Arise aims to tailor learning to individual needs, enabling service partners to continuously improve their performance while feeling fully supported.
“Our 2025 strategy is to integrate all of our other external systems into Centrical—making it the nucleus of our operations,” added Sonia. “By connecting systems like quality and performance tracking, we’ll create a seamless, real-time learning environment for our service partners.”
This vision will enable Arise to not only optimize the learning journey but also foster deeper connections between their training tools and operational goals, setting the stage for long-term success.
Building Community and Connection in a Virtual Model
“We don’t want service partners to feel like they’re on an island. These community groups will create spaces for sharing insights, addressing curriculum questions, and building a sense of connection,” said Chris Carver.
In addition to integrating their systems, Arise is focused on fostering collaboration and connection in their fully virtual environment. Community hubs for service partners will provide a platform for sharing best practices, asking questions, and building a sense of belonging. This initiative ensures that service partners feel supported not only by technology but also by their peers, reinforcing engagement and continuous learning.
These two forward-looking initiatives reflect Arise’s commitment to innovation and their relentless focus on empowering gig workers to succeed.
Summary: A Vision for World-Class Learning and Performance
Arise Virtual Solutions exemplifies innovation and excellence in the gig economy. By embracing Centrical’s solutions, they’ve empowered their service partners to achieve unmatched agility, engagement, and success.
“The metrics speak for themselves, and with Centrical as the core of our training, we’re poised to achieve even greater results,” said Sonia Brant Mullins.
Congratulations to Arise on their Scholar Award—here’s to achieving “world domination” in 2025 with continuous learning at its core.
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“CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”
Tompkins comes to Centrical with more than 25 years of experience in software and hardware sales. Prior to joining his role as Chief Revenue Officer at Centrical, he was CEO at Workspot. He held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at IGEL as well as senior sales leadership positions with Red Hat, Hewlett Packard (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise), and Citrix.
Tompkins holds an MBA in Business Administration and Management from the University of Virginia, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and served in the US Navy as a Nuclear Propulsion Technician.
“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.”
“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.”
“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.”
“The future? Goodness, there’s so much, but I really believe 2025 is the year of community. We’re not just taking tickets anymore—folks we’re drawing people in, getting proactive, and co-creating with customers. Community will become a normal service channel, with customer service workers facilitating and adding value.”
“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.”
“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg. Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.”
“For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.”
“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.”
“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.”
“The blending of CX and EX will accelerate. The days of reducing friction for customers at the expense of employees are over. Indeed, because AI-enabled customer experiences often require AI usage by customer-facing employees, leaders will have to ensure a frictionless work experience to drive AI adoption and deliver value.”
One myth that will be debunked in 2025?: “Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.”
Doron is a seasoned R&D professional with a a deep expertise in SaaS and enterprise software. He leads product development at Centrical. Prior to joining the company, he was Director of R&D at Tipalti, where he was part of the team that designed and developed the Tiplati product and the infrastructure it uses. Prior to that he was Director of R&D Sensor Management, which joined from Orsus, which was acquired by Nice Systems. Prior to that he held various R&D positions at Orsus. Doron holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from the Tel Aviv Yafo Academic College and a MBA degree from the University of Tel Aviv.
April Crichlow
CMO
April has 20+ years of global marketing experience in the high-tech industry with leadership experience across brand, demand generation, and customer adoption.Previously the Global Head of Marketing for SAP SuccessFactors, April was responsible for end-to-end marketing for SuccessFactors around the world. In this role, April led strategic marketing plans to grow global brand recognition, revenue, customer success and category creation of human experience management (HXM), which is focused on solution innovations that put the employee at the center of work. April also served as a Diversity and Inclusion Lead at SAP and led global thought leadership and strategic partnerships inspiring an inclusive culture, women’s equality, supplier diversity, and sustainable supply chains.
April has been honored by various organizations including CRN’s “Women of the Channel” and as a “Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive” by EmPower. She holds a B.A. in Communications and Marketing from Simon Fraser University, Canada’s leading comprehensive university.
Gal Rimon
Founder and CEO
Gal founded Centrical (previously GamEffective) in 2013, with the vision of helping companies empower their employees’ performance, making them the center of business success.Prior to that he was CEO of Gilon-Synergy Business Insight, a national leader in Business Intelligence. In 2010, Gilon-Synergy was acquired by Ness Technologies (NASDAQ:NSTC) and Gal went on to serve as Senior VP at Ness, and was member of its executive management.
Prior to that he was VP customer relations and operations at Deloitte Consulting. He also worked at EDS and Bashan. He holds a MBA degree in Marketing and Information Technologies from the Tel Aviv University.
Daphne Saragosti
Chief Customer Officer
Daphne has over 15 years of experience in Customer Relations and Retention in both B2B and B2C environments. Her area of expertise is leading customer success, consulting and global professional services teams within public and private sector companies. She is focused on leading teams to grow the partnership with our clients.
Prior to Centrical, Daphne worked software and service companies in the online marketing and gaming industry.
Daphne holds MA in Statistics – Specialization in Operations Research and a MBA degree, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Linat Mart
VP, Product Management
Linat Polak Mart has more than 15 years of expertise in managing product strategy and operations in high-volume organizations.Previously, she held the role of Head of Product Experience and Communications for LivePerson, a leading Conversational AI platform, where she played crucial part in delivering significant product innovation and customer growth. Prior to her time at LivePerson, she held multiple senior product roles at NICE, a leading enterprise customer experience (CX) software provider, including Director of Product Portfolio and Director of Product Management.
Linat holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). She graduated magna cum laude from both institutions.
Ella Davidson
VP Global HR
Ella Davidson is responsible for managing Centrical’s employee relations worldwide, including organizational development, talent management, benefits and recruitment. Ella has more than 18 years of human resources management experience. Prior to joining Centrical she was vice president of human resources at myThings and OpTier – leading SW companies, and consulted numerous entrepreneurs and startups in the Israeli hi-tech industry and Israel and in the US.Ella holds a B.A in Psychology from the Hebrew University and MSc in Organizational Behavior from Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
Ariel Herman
VP Research and Development
Ariel has over 16 years’ experience in a wide variety of R&D leadership roles. He is highly experienced at building R&D teams from the ground up, driving high levels of accountability and ownership and setting up automation infrastructures. For the past 10 years Ariel has managed both in-house and offshore development teams at companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations.
Prior to joining Centrical, Ariel served as VP of R&D at Worthy.com where his team dramatically improved product stability, quality and execution. Before that, he was VP R&D at Applicaster where he led infrastructure changes from project to product. Ariel has also held various R&D positions at Retalix (later acquired by NCR).
Ariel holds B.sc in Computer science & Math, and MBA degree in Information Technologies, both from Bar Ilan University
Ronen Botzer
CFO
Ronen is a Finance and Business Development executive with 20+ years of leadership experience in startups and global companies across all aspects of management. He has direct experience with companies in the areas of software, services and capital equipment, including fund raising as well as M&As across different continents. Ronen is a CPA and holds an LLM degree from Bar Ilan university and B.A in business administration from the College of Business Management.
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Doron Neumann
April Crichlow
Gal Rimon
Daphne Saragosti
Linat Mart
Ella Davidson
Ariel Herman
Ronen Botzer