There’s little doubt that offshoring business process work can deliver cost savings for outsourcing customers and profits for business process outsourcing (BPO) providers. But can the BPO industry actually improve the lives of the poor and disadvantaged in developing economies?

That’s what a recent study, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by business consultancy Monitor Group, sought to find out. And the answer is, in certain cases, yes.

The researchers examined what they called the field of “impact sourcing:” employing socioeconomically disadvantaged people in BPO centers around the globe. They found that such work not only gives the poor and vulnerable more access to opportunities but can also provide high-quality, reliable services at prices that are at least competitive with traditional BPO centers and, in some cases, nearly 40 percent lower than the average provider.

Mike Kubzansky, a partner in Monitor’s National Economic Development and Security practice, had been looking at a range of innovative market-based approaches to poverty—most specifically “impact investing,” in which enterprises not only deliver a commercial business case but also have a social impact—when it became clear that the global BPO industry could do just that.

The study focuses, to a large degree, on the nascent BPO industry in Africa, where the Rockefeller Foundation has a large presence and interest. But it also looked at the BPO industry in India and a host of other underserved communities in developed nations, said Kubzanksy, such as “U.K. operators doing this in economically depressed areas in London, or what Accenture does with Native American populations in South Dakota.”

To qualify as impact sourcing, the BPO work needs to provide a significant income increase to its employees over their alternatives. As a result, a significant amount of BPO activity in, say Bangalore, where providers hire college graduates with other opportunities available to them in those cities, did not factor into the impact sourcing picture.

Kubzansky found a wide variety of BPO providers having a potential impact on poverty and opportunity in the markets where they set up shop—from multinationals like IBM and Infosys to African and Asian start-ups, from rural locations in Kenya to urban centers in Haiti. According to Monitor’s working paper, Job Creation through Building the Field of Impact Sourcing, impact sourcing employees benefit not only from income increases between 40 and 200 percent, their BPO employment also increases family investment in health care and education.

The most mature market for impact sourcing is India, where such activity takes place in rural areas and second- and third-tier cities. “There’s a social impact but also a strong business case,” Kubsansky explains. “Wages are lower, skills are comparable, and churn rates are significantly lower. They have been able to hit that double bottom line.”

The two BPO work areas where impact sourcing is likely to occur today are lower-end data tasks (data processing and digitization) and lower-end voice work that requires local language skills.

The biggest issue for BPO providers working in the impact sourcing arena is training. “It’s a significant investment, and one of the things they worry about the most,” says Kubzanksy. “And the problem exists at two levels. First, there’s the employees themselves. Some will have innate smarts but may have never worked in a formal setting. The other issue is middle management. Can I get skilled people out in a rural area six hours outside of Calcutta? Can I get these people who started out with me as entry level analyst trained up for middle management?”

In some countries, such as South Africa, the government is helping to absorb the cost of training. Then the issue becomes generating demand. In most cases, these BPO providers start with smaller contracts for local work and must figure out how to scale. “We’re still very early in the game,” Kubzanky said, “and the issues are the same as for anyone new in the outsourcing space.”

They key to taking impact sourcing to the next level is to surmount those growth hurdles. The average outsourcing customer may not be willing to take a risk on a new location or provider, and their interest is on cost cutting and quality, not providing opportunity to workers in Luang Prabang, Laos or Lahore, Pakistan. Quite the contrary, most Western companies today avoid trumpeting the creation of jobs anywhere outside their home countries.

Kubzansky points to two potential solutions. One would be an increase in established BPO providers subcontracting to smaller impact sourcing players. “This needs to go on a lot more to help these guys access larger multinational clients,” said Kubzansky. “They will be more comfortable having a conversation with a Wipro who will give their Six Sigma guarantee on the work.” The other is a model embraced by Samasource, a San Francisco-based non-profit that acts as an intermediary to service providers in five countries, providing them a sophisticated marketing and sales front end. Samasource brands the BPO work and, once acquired, distributes it as “micro work” to its member companies. “They have someone who can be at the front end and speak to customers so the providers can focus on service delivery, training and employment,” Kubzansky said.

According to the study, impact sourcing accounts for $4.5 billion in business annually—just 3.8 percent of the global $119 billion BPO industry—and employs 144,000, but it has the potential to reach $20 billion and employ 780,000 by 2015.

For most existing BPO providers, including many of the upstart players in the impact sourcing field that the research examined, the social impact of offshore outsourcing is an afterthought, if it’s considered at all. But Kunzansky says that is fine. There has to be a business case beyond doing good for sustainable change in local communities or developing economies. And, for many players in the field, there is, from the value of a new lower cost location to access to new markets.

L to R: Debra Floyd, COO, Outsourcing Center; Brain Duffy, Director of Sales and Service, Barclaycard US; Jeff Brown, VP – BFSI Operations, Firstsource; Linda Tuck Chapman, President, ONTALA

Outsourcing Excellence Award — Most Collaborative: Barclaycard US and Firstsource
“We are getting results that exceed our plan. By the end of the first year, performance of our former employees who are now on the Firstsource team was at or above what it was when we initiated the transition.”
Brian Duffy, head of service and sales, Barclaycard US

Criteria: The parties build an environment for collaborating on solutions and opportunities to produce win-win outcomes for the customer. This collaborative environment must be constant and not just when there’s a problem to solve.

Barclaycard US, the payments business of Barclays in the United States, issues American Express, Visa and MasterCard products through marketing partnerships with companies such as US Airways, Apple and the NFL. To handle its exponential growth, Barclaycard opened its own call center in Colorado for sales, service, collections and marketing in 2006. Eighteen months later “we realized that for this particular set of responsibilities, we would benefit from leveraging a partner,” says Brian Duffy, head of sales and service, commercial management, Barclaycard US.

The business sought to reduce its expense so it could provide more value to customers. The bank looked at offshoring. “We thought it would be best to go to market, sell the assets, re-badge the employees and buy back the hours. We saw this as a win-win for both parties,” recalls the Barclaycard executive.

At that time India-based Firstsource was looking to expand its presence in the United States. The two companies began their collaboration in 2008.

Collaboration and trust

Firstsource wanted to expand its presence in the Philippines; Barclaycard agreed to be its first voice client there. Based on its experience, Barclaycard knew its provider would be able to deliver the kind of service that would please customers.

On the business side, Firstsource allowed Barclaycard to restructure the agreement so it could count hours used in the Philippines for hours contracted in Colorado. As a result, Barclaycard funded less for the service because Firstsource’s operating platform in the Philippines is cost-efficient. Shifting more business to this location benefited Firstsource as well. The partners call this a “creative win-win.”

Collaborating on offshoring labor issues

Barclaycard says that when it faces staffing issues and needs access to service personnel quickly, it is able to rely on Firstsource. “We find that Firstsource aggressively puts together action plans and pulls levers necessary to address our challenges,” the head of sales and service says.

For example, Firstsource originally had difficulty in the first 90 days training and retaining representatives for the Manila center. “It’s a very competitive marketplace for employees,” Jeff Brown, vice president, operations for Firstsource, reports. Barclaycard executives met with Firstsource’s global COO to discuss the problem and come up with a solution.

The partners worked together to understand why people were leaving and what they had to do to retain them. “We addressed all compensation, benefit programs and employee satisfaction issues,” says Brown.

Firstsource discovered its salaries were below market, so it adjusted salaries accordingly. “They took it upon themselves to adjust salaries because it was the right thing to do to get the end result that we needed. They ignored their original target margin and took the right steps to ensure the program would be successful with the end user – the customer – in mind,” says Duffy.

This collaborative approach helped when Barclaycard reevaluated its approach to outsourcing debt recovery work, of which Firstsource had provided a share since 2009. The partners mutually agreed to move the business. Firstsource worked with Barclaycard to create a plan to compensate for the lost business that worked for both partners.

Barclaycard was also helpful when Firstsource wasn’t using all its space in the Colorado call center. The service provider was able to sublet unused office space in the Colorado location without compromising the quality or reliability of its services for the client.

Why this relationship works

Brown says the relationship’s success is based on a disciplined approach to understanding customer needs, tracking performance, making adjustments and delivering.

This discipline includes formal structure such as a governance calendar, “which ensures the right people are talking about the right things at the right time,” Brown explains. The partners communicate frequently and transparently to ensure they understand the objectives and challenges of both businesses.

Brown adds Firstsource takes the time to deeply understand the credit card business. “I spend a lot of time studying what Barclaycard’s competitors are doing,” he says. At the same time, he knows the bank is learning about what’s happening in the outsourcing world, especially the technology segment. “This allows us to make a deeper impact together,” says Brown.

The Barclaycard executive says Firstsource’s flexibility and collaborative spirit are key reasons for success of the partnership. “We operate in a rapidly changing marketplace. Credit card regulations have changed as did economic conditions over the past few years. We’ve changed our business model appropriately over the last three years. Firstsource is willing to make those changes with us,” Anderson says.

Brown says Firstsource is willing to make those changes because “we base our business on long-term relationships.”

“From the beginning, you couldn’t separate what we did from what they were doing,” says Duffy, adding there has always been open and transparent dialogue between Firstsource and Barclaycard. “They return our calls within two hours.”

”We offer partnership cards with more than 40 different retailers, travel providers and financial institutions,” Duffy says. “So we understand what makes a good partnership between two different businesses.”

Telvista began operating in 1997 as a small contact center based in Richardson, Texas. Since merging with international outsourcer Grupo Tecnico de Servicios (GTS) in 2002, we have grown into a multinational organization by building several state-of-the-art call centers in the United States and Mexico, offering broader contact center solutions for our clients.

Telvista consistently performs at the top among outsourcers, and we are always looking for new ways to “wow” customers because we want to be the best in the industry. By implementing the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) customer loyalty metric in our business, we have been able to transform the call experience, increase customer loyalty, and drive business results for our clients.

Telvista provides creative, high-quality business solutions to a wide range of companies, from the Fortune 1000 to fast-growing start-ups. We consistently provide each client with innovative solutions specifically designed to increase revenues and lower costs.

Telvista serves a large client base and a diverse set of industries, including technology, telecommunications, financial services, retail, and others. We also hold a unique position within the industry – the ability to scale and grow with our clients while offering the flexibility and focus of a smaller partner. Whether a client has 25 seats or over 1,000, our personalized approach and attention to detail ensure a successful partnership.

Service Lines

Customer Care. Telvista understands the crucial role of your customer care operation in maintaining and growing loyal relationships between you and your customers. As your customer care partner, we handle each and every customer interaction with the kind of quality that breeds customer loyalty, protects your brand, and ultimately ensures long-term success and profit.

Technical Support.Technical support contacts are not only critical to customer satisfaction but also provide a unique opportunity to build customer loyalty through superior service.  When a customer contacts us with a technical problem, our team provides the knowledge, processes, and personal skills to solve the issue quickly and efficiently, leading to increased satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Sales and Order Management. Telvista has the expertise to help you maximize marketing and selling efforts, and increase overall market share – ahead of your competition.

Loyalty Programs. In today’s highly competitive environment of educated consumers and constant innovation, loyalty programs are an effective and essential part of any customer care strategy.

Professional Services and Consulting. Telvista becomes a partner in the success of our clients by offering a broad range of contact center consulting services specifically designed to seamlessly integrate people, process, and technology. Our technology solutions enable clients to maximize their customer care operations by driving efficiencies and enhancing the customer experience.

Distinctive Capabilities

Telvista is a strategic partner to its clients. We align our program execution and metrics with client objectives so we can always offer best practices, experience, and expertise that help achieve their business goals. Our nearshore contact centers are all within a four-hour flight of most major U.S. cities. Because our centers are in Mexico, we have a better understanding and ability to understand and serve the U.S. Hispanic market than offshore or domestic contact centers.

Telvista at a Glance
Year founded – 1997
Employees – 7,000 employees
Service lines – Customer Care, Technical Support, Sales, Loyalty, Self-Service, Professional Services
Headquarters location – Dallas, TX
Locations of global delivery centers – 7 Centers – Dallas, TX; Danville, VA; Tijuana, BC, Mexico (3 centers); Mexicali, BC, Mexico; Mexico City, DF, Mexico

For More Information

Telephone – (800) 563-9699 Option 1
Fax – 972.919.8145
www.telvista.com

Certifications

• PCI – DSS Certification
• Net Promoter Certification

Awards and Recognitions

• Top 50 Teleservices Agencies – Since 2001
• Super Empresas – Since 2005
• Top Outsourcer – Since 2005
• MVP Quality – 2001, 2002, 2006

As the second largest BPO company based out of India, WNS “extends the enterprise” of some of the world’s best brands. WNS provides industry-focused and cross-industry solutions in key industry verticals that include Travel, Insurance, Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods, Shipping and Logistics, Healthcare and Utilities. WNS delivers an entire spectrum of business process outsourcing such as finance and accounting, customer care, technology solutions, research and analytics and industry-specific back-office and front-office processes. We offer decision-support services through our Research and Analytics capabilities. Our Business Transformation Outsourcing enables the client organization to outperform as a highly efficient, productive and dynamic organization.

We enable clients to outperform with our passion for service and innovation. Clients benefit from our global delivery network and a comprehensive outsourcing services offering. Deep industry knowledge and expertise, a partnership approach, comprehensive service offerings and a proven track record enable us to deliver business value to many of the world’s leading companies. We are passionate about building an organization that is valued by our clients, employees, business partners, investors and the community at large. Our management team comprises accomplished professionals from leading global organizations. Each member brings deep business acumen and outsourcing domain expertise, ensuring a strong growth curve.

Service Lines

Banking and Financial Services – WNS has end-to-end capabilities in the banking and financial processes. We support diverse segments, including banking, asset management and brokerage. To offer a glimpse of our services across the value chain in a year, we process over five million checks, manage over one million customer and broker calls, and process more than three million back-office transactions. Our resources are certified professionals in public accounts, underwriting and SAS programming. WNS offers a proprietary software for lending management called Digital LoanTM.

Insurance Services – WNS offers end-to-end solutions across the entire spectrum of life, property and casualty, and health insurance processes. The quantum of our operations across the value chain is significant. In a year, we process over 20 million claims transactions, handle over one million customer transactions and over two-and-half million calls, and perform over 250,000 life and pensions transactions. Our resources in insurance are trained professionals with AICPCU (IIA) /IF-1 of CII / CPA / CFP and AAPC certifications. WNS offers clients its proprietary auto-claims management software, ProClaimTM.

Travel and Leisure Services – With over 30 clients in airlines, travel agencies and GDS providers, WNS has a deep understanding of the Travel and Leisure industry. Our services across the value chain include over 140 processes, many of which are end to end. WNS manages in a year over eight million customer interactions, 20 million flight coupons, five million passenger requests and cargo operations for 1,900 flights. Our resources are IATA and UFTA certified.

Finance and Accounting – WNS has a comprehensive service offering that supports end-to-end functions in a Chief Finance Officer’s office. In a year, WNS manages over 62 million transactions with a value of over USD 70 billion, delivers transactional to high-end F&A and supports transactions in over 25 major global currencies and multiple ERP applications. We have been consistently delivering over 40 percent annual savings to our clients and taking our relationships further through continuous process improvements and service levels. Our resources are CA / CIMA / CPA qualified. WNS has a global partnership with CIMA.

Research and Analytics – WNS has a rich pool of domain consultants who offer knowledge-intensive services that support executive decision-making. Our 1,500+ analysts with advanced qualifications, such as MBA, Chartered Accountancy and PhD (statistics), and service more than 45 clients in the United States and Europe. Our KPO services are spread across industry verticals such as CPG and Retail, Financial Services, Media and Entertainment, Professional Services and Emerging Verticals. The high-business-impact WNS KPO solutions come with multilingual capabilities.

Contact Center – As part of WNS Customer Care Outsourcing, our contact centers handle 20 million calls, two million e-mails and one million white mail in a year. The calls range from query handling to rules-based response and judgment-based decision-making. The WNS contact center handles scripted and unscripted calls, with an average handling time of eight minutes for unscripted calls. We run 35 different voice processes with 95 percent inbound calls and five percent outbound calls.

Legal Services – WNS offers legal processing outsourcing to clients that include the UK’s leading conveyancing law firms, personal injury litigators and global insurers. We have a resource base of over 400 skilled lawyers, legal graduates, paralegals and case handlers. We manage robust data and inbound/ outbound voice processes. Our service offering includes property law, personal injury claims, law firm back-office operations and corporate legal support services.

Transformation Solutions – WNS Transformation Solutions are geared towards aiding organizations to achieve sustainable business transformation through operational excellence. The three-pronged strategy includes operational transformation by leveraging our global operations with lower-cost operating models, process reengineering, benchmarking and best practices, and domain and technology innovations; sustainable change where we architect a transformation vision and road map that incorporates organizational change and enables the realization of sustainable business results; and actionable insights that leverage the WNS strength in analytics to drive direct business impact. Our service offerings include consulting and program management services, process and quality services and technology services.

Emerging Businesses – WNS has over the years effectively tapped into the emerging business opportunities in sectors such as Shipping and Logistics, Healthcare, Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods, Manufacturing and Utilities. Across the value chain, we process over two million customer transactions and manage payrolls for over 200,000 retail employees annually. WNS clients include several Fortune 500 companies.

Distinctive Capabilities

The WNS key differentiators “extend the enterprise” of our clients and are geared to help businesses outperform. The following distinctive values power each client relationship that WNS builds:

• Business Transformation: WNS recognizes the need for outsourcing to drive strategic change in an organization and create business value year-on-year. WNS looks beyond delivering operational efficiency, service level agreements and lowering costs and transforms the client’s business.
• Partnership Approach: WNS works seamlessly with clients through complete alignment of interests. We structure financial models that best respond to the stage of the relationship – transition, stabilization, continuous improvement – and our clients’ goals for the relationship.
• Deep Domain Expertise: Outsourcing services impact business performance when they are combined with industry intimacy. Our strong capabilities in each industry vertical we operate in, coupled with our endeavor to constantly upgrade the skills of our employees, ensure we deliver service with a distinctive edge.
• Global Delivery Capability: We offer global delivery capabilities to support our clients’ global enterprises. The WNS Global Delivery Network gives clients access to a scalable and flexible infrastructure with the desired skills, services, cultural alignment and language capabilities at the right price at onshore, nearshore or offshore centers.

WNS at a Glance

• Year founded: 1996
• Revenues: USD 616 million (2011)
• Employees: 21,000+ (2011)
• Service lines: Banking and Financial Services, Travel and Leisure Services, Insurance Services, Finance and Accounting, Research and Analytics, Contact Center, Legal Services, Transformation Solutions, Emerging Businesses
• Headquarters location: Mumbai, India
• Locations of global delivery centers: 23 delivery centers across India, USA, UK, Australia, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Romania, Sri Lanka and UAE

For More Information

Corporate Offices Telephone Nos.:

• Mumbai: +91 22 4095 2100
• New York: +1 212 599 6960
• London: +44 207 440 0800

Fax Nos.:

• Mumbai: + 91 22 2518 8307
• New York: +1 212 599 6962
• London: +44 207 440 0808

E-mail: info@wns.com

www.wns.com

Certifications

• ISO 9001:2008 – Bureau Veritas Certification, Moody’s International
• ISO 14000 – Bureau Veritas Certification
• ISO 27001:2005- British Standards Institute
• PCI DSS – Control Case
• SAS70 – Type II Attestation by Ernst & Young

Awards and Recognitions

BPO Leadership:

• Dual Recognition at the BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11
• Best New Outsourced Services Delivery by Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (2010)
• Best New BPO Locator of The Year by Business Process Association of Philippines (2010)
• Industry-specific multi-year winner – IAOP Global Outsourcing 100 (2010)
• Special Award at the NASSCOM Corporate Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity in the Best BPO

Company category (2010)

• Dian Masalanta Award of the Year for being a dynamic new partner of the National Voluntary Blood Services Program by Govt. of the Philippines (2010)
• Best New Outsourced Services Award by SSON (2009)
• Among the Top 3 BPO Companies in India for six consecutive years (NASSCOM)
• Among the Top Ten BPO Companies to Work for in India (Business Today)

Domain Leadership:

• In the Top Five FAO Market Star Performer for the second consecutive year by Everest Group (2010 / 2011)

Quality and Technology Leadership:

• Golden Peacock National Quality Award for Overall Business Excellence and Quality Standards (2011)
• IDG Media CIO 100 Special Category Award in recognition of WNS’s Infosec architecture and implementations (2010)
• NetApp Enterprise Innovation Award (2010)
• Maharashtra State IT Award (2010)
• Best Project Achievement in Green Six Sigma Award at WCBF, USA (2009)
• Golden Peacock Eco-Innovation Award for Green Lean Sigma Program by The World Environment Foundation in association with the Institute of Directors (2009)

Case Studies:

• How WNS increased conversion rate by 50 percent for Travelocity’s inbound offline sales:
  http://www.wns.com/Resources/Case-Studies/Case-Studies-Detail/entryid/3.aspx
• Finance and Accounting: End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery and freight services provider:
  http://www.wns.com/Resources/Case-Studies/Case-Studies-Detail/entryid/30.aspx

Click here to download this free paper.

Companies turn to NuuKo for executive advice in healthcare

Companies needing advice typically hire consultants to help them. But few of the consultants have C-suite experience and expertise. Now they can turn to NuuKo, a consortium of retired C-level executives, for help. Currently the company is focusing on the healthcare vertical.

“In today’s rapidly changing world, it’s becoming more and more difficult for C-level executives to get their hands around the healthcare issue. It’s harder than ever to understand the dynamics. They want to add top experts into the mix,” says Doug Poretz, NuuKo Co-founder.

He says enterprises are discovering they need to “be smart in niches at 100,000 feet.” Few, if any, have that kind of talent in-house, so the chief option was to hire a $300-an-hour consultant. But companies, he says, found consulting bureaucratic and slow. “They thought they would get help from the rainmaker, but they ended up with a recent MBA who was learning from the client instead of the other way around,” Poretz says. “Nuuko’s goal is to provide true experts quickly.”

Poretz says he founded the firm two years ago because there is now a wealth of retired C-level executives both available and willing to work. “There is a monstrous pool of talent that’s untapped,” Poretz observes. “At 65, people want to quit their jobs, but they don’t want to quit their careers.”

NuuKo experts retired from Fortune 500 companies. “They don’t want to spend every day on leisure activities. They want to remain useful, they like being in the game, and they still want to make money,” he explains. Working for the fee-based provider, these executives can work on their own schedules. They don’t want to return to a full-time position.

However, they also don’t want to handle the back-office details or do any of the marketing necessary. NuuKo does all the billing, marketing, and support for them.

The boom for home-based call center companies

Jared Fletcher, Vice President, VSC Operations for Arise Virtual Solutions, an outsourcing service provider specializing in at-home workers, says the number of older workers providing customer service, sales, and tech support for Arise’s clients increased 30 percent in 2010. Arise defines an older worker as anyone 45 or older. Currently the oldest worker servicing clients is 78, he reports.

The numbers are similar at Alpine Access, another home-based call center service provider. Remi Killen-Weber, HR Project Manager, says the company has 641 employees over the age of 50; 137 of those are over 60. While the average age of Alpine Access workers is 38, the number of people over 50 increased threefold in the last 12 months. “We will continue to see this trend happen,” she posits.

Fletcher says the wide-scale reductions in force created a large pool of experienced, unemployed workers. Fletcher says these people are looking for a full-time opportunity. On the other hand, retirees have found the low interest rates on their investments are eroding their budgets; funds are running out early. “They are looking for supplemental income” and flexible part-time work, he explains.

Outsourcing service providers welcome this trend. “Generally, older workers are more seasoned. They have maturity and responsibility,” he explains. “They tend to show up more often than a 20-year-old who is a less focused on generating income, and they deliver excellent results,” the Arise executive explains.

Killen-Weber reports older workers currently are the company’s top performers. The service provider found older workers handle phone calls in a shorter time while achieving higher customer satisfaction scores.

How home-based workers work

All virtual agents at Arise sign a statement of work commitment that they will provide services between a minimum of 15 and 20 hours a week. But they can work 100 hours if they choose. “One of our clients provides roadside assistance. We answer calls 24/7. There are plenty of options if our home-based workers want the hours. Our agents choose the clients they want to support and the hours they want to work, including evenings and weekends,” Fletcher says.

Jackie Booley, 65, is a customer care professional for Alpine Access. She retired from AT&T in 2007, having worked in a bricks-and-mortar call center for 15 years.

She went back to work in 2009 when her financial adviser told her that her nest egg cracked, thanks to falling stock prices. She turned on her computer, Googled “work from home,” and discovered Alpine Access. “I checked them out to make sure it wasn’t a scam,” she says. Then she submitted her resume.

“I love working from home. I don’t have to go anywhere if we have a hurricane,” she says. (She lives in Florida.) “I don’t have to do my hair or buy work clothes. I love my bedroom-slipper job.”

She currently answers calls for Office Depot six hours a day. “They don’t care which six hours,” she says. “I’m not a morning person, so I work from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.,” she continues. Her office is her guest bedroom.

Booley loves the satisfaction she gets from helping people. One older gentleman in upstate New York ordered 15 cases of paper. The order clearly stated not to leave the cases in front of the garage. Of course that’s exactly what the truck driver did. It was snowing and the customer couldn’t lift the cases. Booley saved the day by having the courier move the paper to his front door.

She does not get lonely because Alpine Access set up a virtual break room. She can type “I need help” and get it. “There’s always someone to ask,” she explains.

She’s proud that Alpine Access only hires U.S. workers. “This is the best job I’ve had in my life,” Booley notes.

“With customers constantly online and engaged in social conversations, corporations no longer have control over their brands,” says Douglas Jones, SVP, Worldwide Sales and Business Development for Lithium Technologies, a company that specializes in providing solutions for brands to embrace the social customer. “Social media has allowed customers to dictate the message. Today consumers trust their peers more than the company’s marketing and sales pitch, so corporations have to change their approach with consumers,” he explains.

For this reason, corporate customers kept asking TeleTech, an outsourcing service provider specializing in managing the customer experience for its buyers, about social media, according to Taylor Allis, Executive Director, Product Marketing. At the same time, TeleTech itself noticed consumers were interacting differently by using the new social media as well as the traditional standard e-mail and toll-free phone help lines. “People still use them, of course. But we noticed a majority of interactions are happening in forums or social media channels,” he reports.

The service provider faced a challenge. “We have the process and the people,” says Allis. But Teletech didn’t have the social media technology required in this brave new world. Reacting to the new need, TeleTech teamed with Lithium Technologies to address this challenge.

The partnership allows the service provider is to give its buyers a single customer relationship management (CRM) solution. “TeleTech is definitely ahead of the curve in understanding how this technology will reshape its business,” says Jones.

Benefits to outsourcing buyers

The new offering provides companies better access to social media activity. Jones says this knowledge is important because companies create ongoing, long-term relationships with their customers before and after the purchase. Outsourcing buyers that use this knowledge appropriately can “drive cost down and customer satisfaction up. Using social media well can have a profound effect on both the top- and bottom-line business objectives,” the Lithium executive insists.

Allis adds the CRM solution allows his team to provide better customer service support. “This retains customers and drives revenue,” he observes. It can even improve sales with up-selling and help buyers market new products, he adds.

The partnership is also helping outsourcing buyers get their social media CRM monitoring up faster. Allis says hiring people to monitor social forums, building processes, and buying the software can take 6 to 12 months. TeleTech’s solution is up and running in 90 days.

Teletech’s new social CRM solution

Allis says the new solution does three things:

1. Answers customer queries in the new media, which deflects actual phone calls
2. Improves customer satisfaction
3. Provides customer service

The Lithium solutions include applications for social media monitoring, community, and analytics.

Lithium’s Social Media Monitoring application uses search engine technology to allow organizations to listen and monitor the conversations across the social web. The application produces results based on the types of comments it uncovers. “Lithium scours the Web for brand mentions and sentiment. We can find the sources of information and who is engaging in the conversations,” explains Jones. The application delivers all the results to a central dashboard.

The TeleTech CRM solution allows buyers to outsource this monitoring. “If we see a customer complaining about one of our clients, our agents can respond directly,” says Allis. For example, if a buyer of a new smart phone has an issue, he or she might tweet about it or mention it in a Web forum or on Facebook. A TeleTech customer service agent would receive a notice about the comment. The agent would then send an e-mail or tweet with a solution to the problem. That might include links to a forum or a blog that contains the answers. “Our goal is to proactively solve their problems through social media channels,” says Allis.

Lithium also provides applications for branded communities. For example, if a consumer wants to purchase a new smart phone and can’t decide between an iPhone and an Android phone, he or she most likely will search for information on both from Google. Lithium uses its search engine optimization technology to direct these queries to one of its forums. The communities are loaded with knowledgeable consumers and documents.

The partnership also provides community moderators “to ensure the content is relevant and appropriate,” says Allis. He says this is a new skill set for his agents, especially since forums are public “and can affect a company’s stock price.”

Other ways social media is impacting TeleTech

Allis says social media is changing outsourcing at his company in two other ways:

1. Human capital and recruiting. Allis says call center associates are increasingly looking for outsourcing jobs using social media. He says today social media has become “a key component” in the service provider’s talent acquisition and recruiting efforts, especially among its at home agents. Currently its Facebook page has 11,000 members and there are 50,000 Twitter followers.
2. Internal collaboration and knowledge sharing. TeleTech calls its internal blog “Iris.” Allis says Iris has turned into an area where employees “can share best practices and 411.” One of the favorite topics is how to be a great customer service agent, he reports. Employees also talk about new and interesting trends and products.

One of our key differentiators is that we have the global resources and financial stability of a large firm but the nimbleness of a small firm. Another differentiator is that we work equally well with multinationals, Fortune 500 companies, and with entrepreneurial, smaller organizations. This is not only because our executives have backgrounds with in-depth experience in all sizes of organizations but primarily because we don’t use a cookie-cutter approach to our services.

Insigma’s tagline, “Your best fit for valued business results,” is far more than a slogan. We know that one size does not fit all, and we don’t try to fit our clients into predetermined solutions. Instead, we collaborate with them to develop the best solution that is relevant to their unique circumstances. In addition, we use a TLC approach (Thinking, Learning, Creativity), which ensures we share our thinking and interact with clients’ learning and turn that into added value.

We look for opportunities to build mutually beneficial long-term relationships, as we believe this gives us optimal avenues to provide greater value for our clients.

Service Lines

IT solutions

• Infrastructure services – Consulting, designing, system integration and management in the following: Green IDC, green data center solution; system high-availability solution; business continuity and disaster recovery, data management, backup, and recovery; virtualization; data center integration; network installation and optimization; network security; network hosting and database maintenance; high-performance computing; middleware; and desktop.
• Application services – Application development and maintenance, system integration; system/application testing; implementations of emerging technologies; replacing core systems; BPM tools; analytics, service-oriented architecture; reducing application complexity and cost
• Legacy system reengineering/modernization
• Research and development – Insigma has developed and tested thousands of software products and provided ongoing tech support services. We are uniquely qualified to partner with our clients not only on the engineering side but also in go-to-market initiatives. Our R&D services span the life cycle including: engineering, prototyping, testing, quality assurance, incubation labs to test marketability, productizing, manufacturing, and distribution. In addition, as a core member company of the China national R&D programs in IT business, Insigma also participates in key Chinese R&D development programs. From 2009 – 2010, many of our engagements in China national-level projects centered on the Linux platform.
• Managed services – We provide a full spectrum of support services including service desk, incident management, problem management, and change management. Our proprietary managed services tool (IT Manager) provides clients with remote network monitoring and incident alert functions, and supports automatic activation of clients’ network incident management process. ITManager Services Management System (ITSMS), our proprietary process management tool, provides standardized processes in jobs such as network configuration, incident management, change management, release management, etc.

BPO solutions

• Finance and Accounting – Accounts payable, accounts receivalbe, collections
• Payroll
• Contact Center services – Inbound (IT help desk, product support, customer service); outbound (telemarketing, market research, database updating, new product release, follow-up call service, customer care)
• Data entry (all types of documents, multiple languages, and remote management)
• Document management – Including digitization, archiving, and indexing
• Image collecting services
• Insurance claims processing
• Financial services – Corporate banking services, loan processing, credit card processing

Financial Services – Solutions in banking and capital markets, ISVs and exchanges, knowledge services (market data and analytics), trading and settlements, asset and wealth management, corporate banking, mutual fund custody, foreign exchange trading, portfolio evaluation, equities trading, fixed-income trading, collateral management, and online banking). Insigma is a member of the Wall Street Technology Association

Healthcare – Solutions for providers (large hospitals, large national institutions, small clinics), life sciences firms, medical device companies, and pharmaceutical companies.

• Our healthcare consulting expertise includes HIPAA compliance, ICD-10 coding migration/compliance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, reporting and analysis systems, automating claims processing, designing payment systems, conducting clinical trials and epidemiological research; enabling Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse monitoring and enforcement; designing healthcare delivery systems; and implementation of packaged healthcare software.
• ICD-10 Testing Services. Insigma’s ICD-10 testing solution uses a distinctive method for creating accurate clinically based test cases.

Telecommunications – Insigma develops core supporting applications and value-added service systems for the telecom and wireless industry in China under the brand name of Telescope®. The Telescope^® suite provides features the following components: integrated customer management, business operation analysis, and resource configuration and management.

Government – Our e-government solutions are designed to establish an information service platform backed up with government-related data. With such platforms, enterprises can complete multiple tasks such as Web-based business license annual review and examination, Web-based tax filing and Web-based fee payment after their identities are authenticated. We also have an “Intelligent City” suite of innovative solutions that addresses the severe challenges in China’s fast-growing urbanization.

Energy – Insigma has taken a leading role in environmental protection and new energy technologies as well as equipment manufacturing. Innovative solutions and services include design, procurement, and project management for testing and after-sales maintenance in such areas as wind power generation, power plant solutions, and rail transportation.

Distinctive Capabilities

• We can provide clients with access to the China market. Insigma is nearly a US$1 billion enterprise and has a very strong presence in the Chinese economy in several key industries. With our longstanding relationships with local banks, healthcare institutions, and governments, combined with office locations in all the major Chinese cities, Insigma can act as a bridge spanning the gamut of several major Chinese industries and assist our worldwide clients in accessing the China market.
• ICD-10 Testing Services. Insigma’s ICD-10 testing solution uses a distinctive method for creating accurate clinically based test cases. It supplies large amounts of ICD-10 transactional data required for making accurate decisions on IT system remediation, analyzing and performing business-outcomes modeling, and identifying trends and patterns against current and proposed ICD-10 business rules. Our ICD-10 test data is based on clinical records that have then been coded in ICD-10. This database becomes the “gold standard” for payers and providers. It is the source of truth at the event level, which then can be used to predict what will happen in the ICD-10 world. The services are also delivered at a fraction of the cost of testing solutions in the marketplace.
• Legacy system modernization. Our suite of proprietary tools allows us to reverse engineer the code in legacy applications and create new source code, revitalizing a legacy application and extending its life. By working closely with you to understand the complexities of your organization’s unique systems, we enable your functional enhancements while maximizing your existing IT investments and conducting a fast, low-cost and low-risk transition. In addition to high performance, scalability, and maintainability, benefits of our legacy system reengineering solutions includes cost savings of at least 60 percent compared to developing a new system; fewer development risks; shortened system development cycle; and no disruption to business continuity.
• Cost optimization. Cost optimization is a key component of our methodology. We assure our clients the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and cost that is optimized to value. Our cost framework also ensures transparency, no hidden costs, no cost creep and proactive risk mitigation. In addition, we use a process of effective distributed development and also drive continuous improvement to create longer-term value for our clients.
• Financial services. Our clients include many of the world’s leading banks. Insigma is the first Chinese company to tap into Wall Street (through co-sourcing efforts with State Street); we have a joint venture with State Street, the world’s leading provider of financial services to institutional investors. Additionally, in Japan, Insigma is recognized as one of the top five outsourcing service providers.
• Standards development. Insigma was selected to participate in developing the Chinese IT Management Service Standards initiated by the Chinese Ministry of Information and Technology.

Insigma at a Glance

Year founded: Insigma Technology Co., Ltd. was established by IPO in 2001 when it acquired and consolidated several well-established IT and software companies in China that had been providing IT services since 1989. We established operations in the United States in August, 2008.

Service lines: IT infrastructure and applications; R&D, BPO, Financial Services, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Insurance, Government, and Energy

China headquarters: Hangzhou, China
U.S. headquarters: New York City
Global development centers are located in 31 cities on four continents: US, Japan, Europe, China

For More Information

Telephone: +1 (888) 815-5698;
contact@insigmaus.com
www.insigmaus.com

Certifications

ISO/TEC 27001
ISO 9001
CMMI 3 (and above in some service lines)
ITIL V2

Awards and Recognition

2011

• Ranked #40 and a ”Leader” in IAOP 2011 Global Outsourcing 100 Service Providers (sub-list rankings include: Best 10 Leaders - Research & Development Services, Best 20 Leaders - Information/Technology Services, Best 20 Leaders - Telecommunications, Best 20 Companies – Government, and more)

2010

• No. 45 in IAOP 2010 Global Outsourcing 100 (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals); includes sub-list ranking for Best 10 Leaders by Service Provided – Financial Management Services, Best 20 Leaders by Service Provided – Transaction Processing Services, Best 20 Leaders by Industry Focus- Telecommunications
• No. 5 among listed IT companies and No. 388 in Fortune 2010 500 Chinese Listed Companies (Fortune Magazine, Chinese edition)
• Ranked among “100 Companies that Define Global Outsourcing” (Global Media Services)
• Top 3 Chinese Software Product Brands Award (Ranked by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology)

2009

• European and North America Outsourcing Top 5 (IDC Offshore Outsourcing Market Report)
• No. 2 in 2009 China Outsourcing Best Practices Enterprise Top 50 (Devott Co., Ltd., an international consulting company on outsourcing services)
• Ranked in China’s Power of Ten in 2009 (recognizing potential to lead in overseas markets, ranked by Deloitte & KPMG, published by Computer World Hong Kong)
• Top 100 Innovative Service Providers of 2009 (Global Services and neoIT)
• Y2009 Best Business Practice for Promoting International Service Outsourcing Development (Sponsored by China Business Appraisal Association together with Global Outsourcing Information, Global Services (USA), Outsource UK and other industry media)
• Our citizen card platform solution received the Golden Ant Award, the highest industry recognition by the Chinese government.

2008

• Top 15 Brands of Software Import/Export and Outsourcing (China Software Import and Export Magazine)
• No. 6 in China top 100 e-Government Service Providers

2005 – 2007

• IBM “Government Top Business Star”
• Largest “Top China-based IT Outsourcing Vendor” (“Riding the Dragon: Technology in China,” IMP Securities)
• Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific ranking (Deloitte)
• Gartner research report excerpt: “Insigma took more than 100 ‘four-cylinder’ applications that were at the end of their useful life and revamped them for ‘supercharged V-8 capability’ – not just adding more power but reengineering them for greater extensibility.”

Customer Case Studies

• Thomson Reuters (quality assurance; testing)
• State Street (fund administration legacy system reengineering)
• Tax auto optimization system

Why? “We have been under a bushel. Now it’s time to come out into the limelight and show the world there are big advantages in Scotland,” says Jim Mather, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy, and Tourism and a former IBM executive.

Mark McMullen, International Senior Manager, Scottish Development International (SDI), the trade and investment arm of the Scottish government, says Scotland is benefitting from the current outsourcing strategy of blended operations. “Outsourcing buyers want different levels of service for different parts of the business. Service providers want the capability to be able to handle all their clients’ business,” he explains.

For example, Nick Laird, Chief Commercial Officer for Ceridian, says the service provider’s customers prefer to conduct their personal HR activities with onshore call centers instead of offshore. “We are paying more because our customers have told us they appreciate working with people who are aware of their needs,” says Laird.

“Our challenge has been to blend the cost of offshore operations with the high popular acceptance of onshore call centers,” he continues. Ceridian found a good way to “blend cost and quality” was to have its first-level call center for the UK in Scotland but send some of the back-office work to Mauritius. (“People also love their great French accents,” he adds.)

Mather, who is also a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), adds that “London has priced itself out of the market. Scotland has the commensurate skills at a better price.” The Scottish Minister says Scotland has become “a strong outsourcing destination” because “we understand margins are low in the sector. And we have low turnover and high productivity.”

Why Scotland is a financial services outsourcing center

McMullen points out Scotland has a long history in the financial services sector. Investors opened the Bank of Scotland in 1695, a year after a Scotsman founded the Bank of England. “Financial services have been hot-wired into the Scottish economy for hundreds of years,” he says.

Scotland ranks as one of the top financial locations in Europe with Glasgow one of the few cities not to decline in ratings, according to the Global Financial Centres Index 8, September 2010, done by the Z/Yen Group. McMullen says the financial services industry is “one of the most important” in Scotland’s economy; this sector accounts for eight percent of the country’s GNP. It is also a major employer, employing over 95,000 people directly and another 70,000 in support companies, including outsourcing service providers, according to SDI.

“Scotland has a legacy of longstanding, indigenous financial services institutions. That makes the country strategically important to service providers that specialize in this domain,” McMullen says.

In addition, McMullen points out the country is “known for its customer service,” making it a good fit for call centers. He says Scots have a deep understanding of products like mortgages, pensions, and insurance products. But they also have empathy, which is often required when talking to customers about these personal products.

“Our workforce understands both the importance of personalized customer service and the intricacies of the financial sector. It’s in our DNA,” he points out. Adds Owen Kelly, Chief Executive, Scottish Financial Enterprise, a private business group, “Skills and the depth of talent are Scotland’s big attraction.”

The labor pool in the central belt (which includes both Edinburgh and Glasgow) has about 2.5 million people, providing a stable core of employees. In addition, it’s easy to travel between the two cities. Service providers can attract employees anywhere within the belt, he points out.

fDI Magazine’s European Cities and Regions of the Future this year ranked Edinburgh for a consecutive year as Europe’s “best small city of the future.” Les Torrance, Operations Director, UK, Ireland, and CPS for Sykes, a call center service provider, says Edinburgh is a “cosmopolitan city.” He says students from the world over study in Edinburgh and then stay to create a career. “That constructs a highly educated workforce,” he says.

Paul Chapman, Managing Director, Operations for Barclays Capital, feels the same way about Glasgow. “There’s a vibe here,” he says. When Barclays Capital was setting up its shared services center this year, the financial company had to hire 200 people. “We made no compromise on the quality of talent we hired,” he reports.

Laird says the Scottish universities work with employers to educate the students “so they are valuable in the workplace.” He says the professors are open to hearing about the skills Ceridian employees need and will provide “bespoke training.” Today there are 14 universities (plus the Open University) and 43 colleges in Scotland.

Real estate costs are reasonable, points out McMullen. Scotland has built business parks and central business districts for companies to settle. He says it’s not uncommon for companies to sign a 10-year lease with the first five years free as an incentive.

The government provides additional financial incentives, which McMullen calls “icing on the cake.” They include reducing employees’ first two years’ salaries by 15 percent. In addition, Scotland has one of the lowest tax rates in the European Union, at 28 percent.

The Financial Services Implementation Group (FiSIG) also works hard to help outsourcers. Laird says Ceridian was gearing up when IBM was downsizing. “We needed the IT skills,” says Laird. He says FiSIG helped Ceridian link up with former IBM employees.

In addition, SDI is helping Ceridian by providing customer leads. “They have been very helpful. I am surprised how unbureaucratic it is to work with SDI,” Laird says.

Finally, Mc Mullen says companies like settling in Scotland because the Scottish people believe in a good lifestyle balance. “People like living in Scotland. We attract people from all over,” says the Mather.

Scotland’s contact centers

Currently Phil Taylor, Professor at the University of Strathclyde’s Business School in Glasgow, estimates 86,000 work in the nation’s 400 call centers. (There were just 290 in 2003.) His bi-annual study reports the sector has grown 54 percent or 30,000 employees in the last seven years. He found outsourcing accounts for 71 percent of the sector’s growth in the last five years.

Professor Taylor believes the economic recession may have had less effect on the contact center sector than other parts of a business. “In an economic crisis, there are more calls to financial institutions because of customer uncertainty, the need for reassurance, and the requirement to make changes to products and policies,” he explains. “An IVR often can’t answer these tough questions. The banks and insurance companies need a knowledgeable person on the other end of the line,” he says.

Today, one in every 30 employees in Scotland works in one of the country’s contact centers. Glasgow has the highest percentage of contact centers, but they are distributed the length and breadth of the country. For example, there are now 30 centers in the Scotland’s Highlands and Islands region.

Professor Taylor discovered that a third of these centers support financial companies. He cites the “Guinness analogy” that a senior telephone manager with direct experience of migrating voice services to India used. Financial services companies can offshore easy-to-understand tasks to places like India or the Philippines. He likens this to the froth. But the complex tasks that require deep tacit knowledge, emotional intelligence, and higher value-added interaction remain onshore with experienced employees who have the ability to move beyond standardized scripted responses. This is like the body of the pint.

Taylor insists that Scotland and its vibrant contact center sector have become “a prime nearshore location” for Europe. Laird praises the Scottish accent. “It plays well in both the UK and the rest of Europe,” he reports. He says he received some backlash from customers unhappy with doing business with contact centers in India.

Today’s European customers “have become pretty demanding,” says McMullen. They expect to transact business in their own language. Scotland has the talent to provide the language capabilities, he reports. Currently its contact centers offer a mix of 26 different languages.

Taylor estimates there are 109,000 fluent language speakers speaking a foreign language. Ten percent of Scotland’s contact centers offer service in at least one foreign language.

Why Ceridian is in Scotland

Ceridian, a U.S.-based service provider in the HR space, outsources “all its UK people-driven activities,” reports Laird. Ceridian currently employs 280 people in Glasgow; they handle payroll, HR services, flex benefits, and employee assistance programs.

Laird says Ceridian chose Scotland for its UK activities for four reasons:

1. Infrastructure.
2. Access. He says both Edinburgh and Glasgow have good rail, road, and airport access. It’s a 45-minute drive on the highway between the two financial services centers. The modern airport has direct flights to the UK, Europe and the U.S.
3. Skill base. Laird says the Scots have focused on sharpening their midmarket skills (as opposed to high-end capabilities.)
4. Business case. Competitive pressures have forced Ceridian to do less with more. “It costs fewer pounds to outsource to Scotland without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction. Sending work to Scotland has created more value,” he says.

The service provider says its relationship with a high-end retailer in the UK demonstrates the Scottish value proposition. “We weren’t the cheapest option,” Laird reports. “But they wanted the quality we could find in Scotland.”

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