“I do think state and local government agencies are contracting with outsourcing providers at higher levels than we’ve seen before, for economic gains, to access to new skill sets and to stay on top of technological changes,” said Scott Belcher, president and CEO of The Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

Take tolling, for example. Initially, outsourcers were engaged to integrate front-end tolling technology and handle the back-end operations, ranging from violation processing to customer care. This solution evolved into an all-electronic tolling option, eliminating physical tollbooths by enabling toll tag or license plate information to be captured as the vehicles travel by at highway speeds.

“Now, we can give our clients the ability to set up high-occupancy traffic (HOT) lanes with dynamic pricing options. Agencies can raise or lower the price of the toll based on time of day or level of congestion,” explained Parker Williams, Vice president of Transportation Solutions for ACS, A Xerox Company. “Varying prices encourages commuters to take alternate routes, car pool or take public transportation. We’re managing traffic by changing driver behavior.”

According to Williams, higher-quality camera and character recognition technology is only part of the reason these new solutions are possible.

“Not only do we have new types of media available, but we’ve done a lot of work to automate processes within the infrastructure. Instead of someone looking at a license plate on a computer screen to match that plate with an owner, we’ve created software that can automatically extract and read the plates, pull ownership information from a database, and either bill that owner or deduct that toll from the owner’s account,” he said. “It’s a story of efficiency as well as creatively filling a need.”

Smart Cards for Fare Collection

While toll tags eliminate the need for cash collection on the roadways, contactless bank cards, either credit or debit, are bringing the same kind of efficiency to public transportation. Instead of a ticket, riders can use a contactless pay-enabled card or fob for any transit fare where the system is installed. The rider simply taps the card or device, boards the vehicle and goes on his or her way. The fare amount is charged to the credit card or deducted from the debit card.

In addition to speeding throughput and improving fare collections, these cards also give transit agencies something they didn’t have before: actionable customer data.

“Now, transit agencies can track when and how riders use their services, so they can make changes to better meet demand. They can add routes, change stops and get a clearer picture of their clientele,” Williams said. “The agencies gain insight while reducing costs, increase throughput and make it easier for their riders to pay.”

The Brilliance Behind “Smart” Parking

The innovation isn’t limited to roadways only. Smart parking is a huge growth area right now, because it benefits agencies, drivers and the environment alike.

“We spend 30 percent of our time driving around looking for a parking space,” Belcher said. “By guiding drivers to open parking spaces, smart parking increases safety and driver satisfaction while positively impacting the environment.”

Basically, smart parking places metal-detecting sensors in each parking space, which can identify whether a car is present or not. The sensors transmit “occupied or vacant” data to a central processing center that then transmits this information to cell phone applications, message signs or triggers a green light above the open space to alert drivers.

Drivers can pay parking costs with smart cards or credit cards, or, in the case of airport parking, payment can be tied back to that consumer’s toll account. Again, many agencies are relying on outsourcers to handle this integration.

The Impact of the “Connected” Generation

It would be impossible to talk about trends in transportation without exploring the impact of today’s connectivity tools.

“The whole smartphone-Internet-social media revolution is making its way into transportation and changing it, as it has so many other industries,” Belcher said. “Just look at how many cell phone apps have something to do with getting from one place to another.”

Drivers can get real-time traffic information, driving directions, or share congestion information with other travelers. Vehicle location systems let riders know when their bus or train will arrive. Travelers can go online to find shared rides, compare different forms of transportation, or find out where they can rent a Zipcar^® for an hour.

“The emerging generation isn’t as car crazy as ours, evidenced by the fact that they’re waiting longer to get their drivers’ licenses,” Belcher said. “This generation is extremely tech savvy, likes to stay connected through technology, and has less of an expectation of privacy. That means they’re more receptive to sharing rides, and to use social media to not only share the best place to get gasoline, but to report things like potholes or signal light outages. ”

The ones who are driving now want cars that have all of the capabilities of their phones.

“Every major auto manufacturer is working on a vehicle that offers the online access and real-time information drivers want, in a way that keeps the drivers safe,” Belcher said. “Ultimately, we’re moving toward the age of the connected vehicle – one that combines wireless technology with transportation systems, giving it the ability communicate with other vehicles on the road as well as the roadside itself. Hundreds of companies are working on smart technologies to support this goal.”

The result would be a car that kept the driver informed of everything from traffic tie-ups to whether he or she was veering from a designated lane.

“Smart technology and the connected vehicle have the potential to reduce the number of non-impaired accidents by up to 81 percent,” Belcher said. “These initiatives are on a par with the seatbelt in the impact they could have on safety and the environment.”

Clearly, the transportation industry is not standing still. It’s on the road to innovation – with outsourcing helping organizations accelerate the change.

Sources:
Scott Belcher, president and CEO of The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA)
Parker Williams, vice president of Transportation Solutions for ACS, A Xerox Company

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

Headquartered in Bangalore, India, and with a customer base spread across the globe, you will find Sonata offices in the United States, Europe, Middle-East and the Asia Pacific. With a broad set of capabilities and a proven global delivery model, Sonata is poised to be the perfect partner of global firms in their outsourcing initiatives. We bring together a unique combination of breadth of capabilities, strong management focus, and flexibility in engagement required to make our customer relationships a success.

Sonata’s services range from IT consulting to product engineering services, application development, application management, managed testing, business intelligence, infrastructure management, packaged applications, and travel solutions. Our partnerships with global leaders enable us to work on the latest technologies that we leverage to ensure enhanced business efficiencies for our customers. Our proficiency and commitment, combined with our partners’ strength and knowledge, makes us a trusted organization to work with.

Service Lines

Industry Expertise: Travel, Transportation, and Logistics (TTL). Sonata’s joint venture with TUI-InfoTec, which is the IT arm of TUI AG, a leading integrated travel company in Europe, makes it one of the largest Indian IT services providers in TTL in terms of scale, focus, and domain expertise. Sonata offers a range of IT application and infrastructure services to a variety of travel clients. Its experience in the travel vertical spans a range of entities including tour operators, car rental companies, travel agencies (brick and mortar, online), airlines (scheduled, low-cost carriers, charter), travel software vendors, hotels, and other travel ancillary services such as catering.

In the TTL vertical, Sonata brings deep domain capability through in-house travel industry experts and IP-enabled solutions that run global travel businesses. Some of Sonata’s solution accelerators in the TTL vertical are:

• SonnetPCI: PCI-DSS compliance for airlines
• Sonnet4Airlines: Collaboration portal for airlines
• ARMOR: Pricing Decision Support System
• SonnetTravel: e-commerce platform with Dynamic packaging engine for online travel businesses: Travel 2.0 adoption framework

Outsourced Product Development (OPD). Sonata’s expertise in OPD spans enterprise products, embedded systems, as well as online solutions and has a specialized array of services that meet the unique needs of each of these sub-segments. Sonata’s services to product companies span all stages of the product life cycle including product management architecture, development, quality assurance, sustenance, migration, localization/globalization, and professional services.

Sonata’s confidence in its delivery capabilities is reflected in its willingness to offer risk-reward and output-based pricing models in ISV engagements.

Further, Sonata’s Quantified Agile approach – that combines the best of Agile with distributed delivery – has evolved over several successful ISV engagements. Leveraging its software product implementation experience with end users, Sonata brings in several practical insights to help engineer better products. This also uniquely equips Sonata to partner with ISVs not just on the engineering side but also on professional services and go-to-market initiatives. Sonata has been a partner of choice for some of the technology majors on ISV platform adoption initiatives such as Microsoft NXT partner and Oracle ISV migration partner.

Geography Focus: Continental Europe. Sonata has a significant focus on Continental Europe and has demonstrated success in a market that traditionally was elusive for most Indian suppliers, irrespective of scale.

Sonata has a fairly unique delivery model for serving customers in Continental Europe – through TUI Infotec – a joint venture between Sonata and TUI AG (Europe’s #1 travel & tour operator). The Sonata-TUI Infotec combination helps deliver a unique cost-effective model that combines on-site, offshore and nearshore operations for customers in the region. With 450+ experienced native German software professionals with a very good understanding of German language and culture, they ensure “local” presence and “global” capabilities – a critical success factor in that market.

Sonata leverages state-of-the-art infrastructure and data centers to provide application hosting services and is one of four exclusive partners and the only Indian IT provider selected by SAP Deutschland AG & Co. for providing a subscription-based SAP Business All-in-One (BAiO) solution. In addition to offering flexible engagement models such as shared services, Sonata offers transaction or usage-based pricing for its infrastructure management services in the region

Distinctive Capabilities

Sonata’s key differentiators are its distinctive focus on solutions and services for the Travel, Transportation and Logistics (TTL) vertical, Outsourced Product Development (OPD) services, and a unique delivery model for Continental Europe.

In the TTL vertical, Sonata brings deep domain capability through resident travel industry experts and IP enabled solutions that run global travel businesses. Sonata has developed multiple proprietary solution accelerators that enable faster, low-risk technology adoption for travel companies in the areas of PCI-DSS compliance for airlines, collaboration portal for airlines, Pricing Decision Support System, and a Travel 2.0 adoption enabling e-commerce platform with Dynamic packaging engine for online travel businesses.

In its OPD offerings, Sonata brings R&D Based Product Innovation , a 360˚partnership model including engineering, professional services, and market access and innovative output-based Sustenance & Testing Models .Sonata has also invested in proprietary solution accelerators that offer reduced time to market and cost advantages for ISVs:

• SonnetTest: Test Automation and pre-defined test framework
• Crème: Crystal Reports Migration Solution, built on a factory-based approach
• Migration accelerators: VB6 to .NET
• Test Labs: Cloud-based performance test labs

The Sonata-TUI Infotec combination helps deliver a unique cost-effective model that combines on-site, offshore and nearshore operations for customers in the region including third-party application hosting capabilities leveraging its three data centers, which include:

• 4,000 MIPS of mainframe capacity
• 450 experienced professionals
• 200+ hosted applications
• 2,000+ UNIX/Windows servers
• 200 TB of SAN networks
• ISO 20001 certified
• 196 ITIL certified professionals
• Channel Partner for providing subscription based SAP integrated ERP Solution in Germany

Sonata Software at a Glance

Founded: 1986
Revenues: $291M (FY10)
Employees : 2,801
Service lines : Travel, Transportation & Logistics (TTL) solutions, Outsourced Product Development (OPD) services and Enterprise IT services( Collaboration, Managed Testing, ERP services)
Headquarters location: Bangalore, India
Locations of global delivery centers: Germany (Hannover, Salzgitter), India (Bangalore, Hyderabad)

For More Information

Telephone: +91-80-3097-1999
Fax: 91-80-2661-0972
E-mail: dinesh.r@sonata-software.com
www.sonata-software.com

Certifications

• Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
• Oracle Certified Advantage Partner
• SAP Gold Partner
• IBM Business Partner
• ISO 9001: 2008
• ISO 20001
• SEI CMM: Level 5
• SEI CMMi: Level 3

Awards and Recognition

• Featured in Top Outsourced Product Development Vendors by Global Services for FY 2009-2010
• Listed among Top 100 Companies that define Global Outsourcing by Global Services for FY 2009-2010
• Rated by NASSCOM among the Top 20 IT Software Services Exporters in India for the third consecutive year
• Listed by Everest Group among select Tier-2 IT companies that differentiate through specialization (“Survival of the Differentiated – The New Mantra of Success for Tier-2 Service Providers”)
• Ranked among Top 50 companies by Dataquest for FY 2009 – 2010
• Ranked Global #2 in the 2008 Top Ten ESO: Outsourced Software Development (The Black Book of Outsourcing)
• Ranked among Top 10 R&D Services players globally (Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd.)
• Ranked 6th in the Software Products segment (Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd.)
• Winner in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2009 Program

What the Analysts Say about Sonata Software

• NelsonHall rates Sonata’s consulting-led approach to testing and its vertical specific offerings as key differentiators in the industry
• Sonata among Top 10 – A study by Zinnov
• Sonata differentiates among peers through diverse specializations – Everest Group

Case Studies

• Establishment of ODC for a global leading tourism & services group
• Product Engineering Services for a Telecom Major
• Enhancing Product Quality for a Global ISV

Syntel, Inc. was established in 1980 as a local company with a single service offering. Since that time, we have grown into a $410 million global corporation with a market cap of more than $1.5 billion, 16,200+ employees, more than two dozen offices and Global Development Centers around the world, and a full range of ITO and KPO solutions and service offerings.

Syntel has achieved 19% compound annual growth over the past five years (2005-2010). Our growth is attributed to our “customer for life” commitment and ability to continually reinvent ourselves and expand our services to adapt to the shifts of the market and needs of our clients.

Service Lines

A. Industry-specific solutions. At Syntel, our prime objective is to provide targeted solutions to solve your business challenges. Our vertical industry practice groups fuse technical knowledge with business expertise to develop solutions targeted to your business and the competitive challenges you face.

• Financial Services/Banking: End-to-end ITO and KPO solutions for banking, capital markets, and cards and payments industry sectors including risk management, asset management, brokerage, core baking, compliance, fraud solutions, reconciliations, and more.
• Healthcare/Life Sciences: Solutions for compliance, analytics, testing, claims management, records management, and more, spanning payers, providers, medical devices, and life sciences needs for both ITO and KPO services.
• Insurance: KPO and ITO solutions for P&C, life, and retirement including agency management, analytics, policy admin, and more.
• Retail: Targeted solutions for green retail, store systems, POS testing, SCM, and an award-winning Store Service Workbench solution.
• Logistics: Solutions focused on warehouse management systems, package shipment, transportation management systems, supply chain and distribution, freight management, and more.
• Telecom: Solutions tailored for global telecom service providers/carriers and telecom software product vendors including BSS and OSS solutions for billing, revenue assurance, order and service management, and analytics.
• Manufacturing: Framework of solutions fine-tuned to address the unique challenges of the motor vehicles and parts, aerospace, industrial and heavy manufacturing, and medical equipment and supplies industry.

B. Technology solutions and COEs. Syntel’s technology solutions and COEs complement and support our vertical industry solutions. These include:

• Application Development services include new development, enhancements and application consolidation and are focused on helping clients meet emerging business and technology challenges.
• Application Management including our AMO 2.0 offering, a suite of value-added end-to-end services including business and technology alignment, monitoring and alerts, green IT, portfolio rationalization and ITIL-based process consulting to provide your company with a service-oriented, metrics and performance-driven application management function.
• Architecture Services encompass architecture consulting, enterprise content management, enterprise data management and architecture support to enable your organization to achieve an efficient and effective means of driving and validating the value of your technology environment.
• Business Analytics/Business Intelligence provides a full suite of data and analytics services to help extract the real value of your technology, making the data inside your systems work to deliver business intelligence and subsequently improve efficiency, reduce costs, and accelerate ROI.
• Cloud Labs from Syntel provides Portfolio Analysis and Cloud Strategy; Cloud Migration, Re-architecture and Testing; Private and Hybrid Cloud Deployment and Management; PaaS Development, and SaaS Integration.
• IT Infrastructure Management services span the entire spectrum, including consulting and system integration, monitoring & event management, end-user and enterprise computing, network management, security management, and IT helpdesk services.
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry-specific offerings are tailored to your business needs, and eliminate the costly and time-consuming manual processes that can be a drag on your business operations.
• Migration Center of Excellence (COE) with a dedicated team, focused migration solutions that reduce effort, cost and time to market.
• Oracle and SAP services include implementation, customization, upgrade and migration, systems integration, maintenance/support, performance tuning, optimization, feasibility analysis, and business process reengineering.
• Testing services address the operational, tactical, and strategic requirements of organizations by creating customer-specific solutions using a phased approach and innovative frameworks like our innovative iTAP framework built to lower testing TCO.

Distinctive Capabilities

• Custom, flexible solutions. The biggest difference between Syntel and our competitors is that we will never take a “one size fits all” approach to your business and technology challenges. We collaborate with you to adapt our business model to fit your needs, and align ourselves to your corporate culture to deliver the largest impact on your business.
• Small enough to listen, big enough to deliver™. We leverage our midsize status to focus on client service and create maximum value for our clients by delivering innovation, unique engagement models and closely aligning with our clients’ businesses. Together with our robust Global Delivery Model, world-class infrastructure, and highly skilled IT professionals, this flexibility truly makes us “Small enough to listen, big enough to deliver.”™
• US-based, financially sound, growing organization. Syntel is a U.S.-owned and operated company that has been creating innovative, flexible, adaptable technology solutions for the past 30 years. Publicly traded (NASDAQ: SYNT), our balance sheet is solid, we operate with zero debt, and have more than doubled revenues since 2005, despite economic downturns.
• Extended value – our partnership network. Another way we deliver value is by partnering with the most innovative, value-driven technology and software companies in the world. Whether technology, domain, or solution specific, we integrate our partners’ solutions with our services and frameworks to deliver game-changing technology solutions.

Syntel at a Glance

• Founded: 1980
• 2009 Revenues: $419 million
• 16,200+ employees
• Headquarters: Troy, Michigan
• Global Delivery Centers in Chennai, Mumbai and Pune, India; Memphis, Nashville and Phoenix, USA
• Service Lines/COEs: Application Development & Management, Architecture, Cloud, Business Analytics/DW/BI, IT Infrastructure Management, KPO, Migration, Oracle, SAP, Testing
• Industry Practices: Banking & Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Insurance, Logistics, Manufacturing, Retail, Telecom and Tours & Travel

For More Information

Phone: (972) 653-0559
kishore_ramnani@syntelinc.com
www.syntelinc.com

Certifications

• SEI CMMi Level 5
• ISO 9001:2000
• ISO 27001
• ISO 20000
• SAS Type II

Awards and Recognition

• Microsoft India “Partner of the Year” award for Store Services Workbench Retail Solution – 2010
• FinTech 100 – 2010
• Healthcare Informatics 100 – 2010
• International Association of Outsourcing Professionals “The Global Outsourcing 100″ and sub-lists (Banking, Markets, Insurance, Healthcare) – 2010
• Global Services Media and NeoAdvisory “Global Services 100″ and sub-lists (TOP ITO Vendors, Top ADM Vendors, Top Industry-specific BPO Vendors) – 2010
• VAR 500 – 2010
• Software Magazine’s “Software 500″ – 2010
• Dataquest India – Top 50 IT Companies – 2010
• World HRD Congress: “Best Overall Recruiting & Staffing Organization,” “Most Innovative Recruiting & Staffing Program” and “Excellence in HR through Technology” awards – February 2010

What the Analysts are Saying about Syntel

• “Providers like Syntel . . . blend benefits of domain knowledge and experience with strong account management. Apart from deploying senior subject matter experts and IP on the project, these firms also leverage business analysts and senior account management teams to serve the clients effectively.” – Forrester, Right And Wrong Reasons To Work With Tier Two Offshore Providers, August 2010
• “Consultancies such as Syntel are highly verticalized in order to exploit [long-term cost-reduction activities]. Syntel in particular has established labs, automation tools, centers of excellence, and offshore facilities for the redesign of both business and IT processes.” – Forrester, Reducing The Costs Of IT — Views From Consultancies, October 2009
• “Syntel, by emphasizing strong client-centricity, further reinforces its value to its clients beyond the simple relevance of its solutions.” – Forrester, Why Do you Need Tier Two Providers? (And you Do Need Them!), September 2009

Case Studies

Read about the successful relationships Syntel has built with our clients, and how we are creating new opportunities for their businesses: http://www.syntelinc.com/Internal.aspx?id=133

Secure-24 has grown from managing customer IT environments that supported just a few hundred people to deployments that support tens of thousands of end-users around the globe. Today, Secure-24 provides managed hosting and private cloud services to some of the largest companies in North America with year-after-year of exceptional organic growth based on satisfied customer referrals, a focus on quality and complexity of service, and delivering real business value to customers.

As an IT Managed Services company, Secure-24 provides a full-service technical offering based on expertise in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products such as SAP, Hyperion, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Oracle E-Business Suite, as well as proven project methodology and demonstrated successes in ERP upgrades, migrations, and support engagements.

The company’s competency and continued growth in Enterprise Application Hosting and Private Cloud Computing is supported and recognized by strong partnerships and alliances with industry leaders such as SAP, Oracle, VMware, Cisco, EMC, Dell, and Citrix, to name just a few. Secure-24’s ability to innovate has proved to be attractive to the market; and the company remains entrepreneurial, nimble, and responsive, delivering strategic and transformative technologies that help organizations be competitive.

Service Lines

Secure-24 manages complex IT landscapes for organizations that need to meet rigorous compliance metrics (HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, GLB, FDA, and more). As a result of our customers’ stringent requirements, Secure-24 is continually audited and maintains a high level of compliance, leveraging SAS 70 Type II certified data centers and a long-established history of ITIL and COBIT IT management processes to help customers meet compliance mandates and mitigate risk.

Industries we serve include Automotive, Consumer Products, e-Commerce, Energy and Mineral Production, Financial Services, Government, Human Resource, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Chemical, Technology and Software Services, and Transportation

Primary Business Services

• Managed Application Hosting & Technical Support (SAP, Oracle EBS, JDE, Hyperion, PeopleSoft, Others)
• IT Outsourcing – Complete IT Infrastructure Support
• Private Cloud Computing – Enterprise Cloud Computing
• Managed Networks
• Business Processes Outsourcing Solutions and Document Management
• Disaster Recovery

Offerings encompass

• Providing a highly secure and highly available hosting environment for mission-critical applications
• Premier monitoring and management of IT environment
• Procurement of all systems relating to deployment and growth of the service
• Maintaining a constantly evolving, premier hosting platform across the life cycle of engagement
• Full range of managed service offerings to compliment application hosting services
• Three Tier-4 category data centers sharing a common SONET Ring – 20 mile radius

Distinctive Capabilities

At Secure-24, our approach to business has always been to stand shoulder to shoulder with our customers, acting as an extension of their team. We are passionate about delivering outstanding personal, responsive, and proactive service. We measure our success by one yardstick – our customer’s success.
Transformation is the latest buzz word in enterprise IT. New technologies such as cloud computing promise to transforming IT from expense to asset and even to business driver. Secure-24’s dynamic Enterprise Private Cloud platform helps organizations quickly gain the business value of new technology while continuing to provide the high security, compliance, and performance levels required for the enterprise.

Secure-24 at a Glance

Founded: 2001
Service lines:

• SAP Hosting
• Hyperion Hosting
• JD Edwards Hosting
• PeopleSoft Hosting
• Oracle E-Business Suite Hosting
• Private Cloud Computing for the Enterprise
• Complete Onshore IT Outsourcing
• Data Center Outsourcing
• IT Managed Services

Headquarters location: Southfield, Michigan
Global delivery centers: 3 data centers in Michigan, 1 in Arizona

For more information

Telephone: 877-724-0365
Fax: 248-784-1024
E-mail: info@secure-24.com
www.secure-24.com

Case study: SAP NetWeaver Magazine Outsourcing Report: Finding a Silver Lining in Uncertain Times: How Hosting Partner Secure-24 Helped SMART Modular Save $1 Million Annually (https://www.secure-24.com/pdf/Secure24_Article_SAP-Netweaver_Magazine_spring09.pdf)

Certifications, Quality Systems, Partnerships

• ITIL and COBIT Processes
• SAP Hosting Partner
• Oracle Gold Partner
• Citrix Silver Partner
• Certified VMware Hosting Provider
• Industry Partnerships (EMC, Cisco, Dell, others)
• SAS 70 Type II Certification
• FFIEC
• ISO27001, ISO 27002
• ITAR

Awards and Recognition

• Secure-24 is a certified SAP Hosting Partner, recognized by SAP as the only U.S. Partner chosen as 2010 Pinnacle Award Outsourcing Partner of the Year finalist
• 2010 Green Award for Energy Efficient Data Centers, Corp! Magazine
• Secure-24 Co-Founder Matthias Horch Named 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Great Lakes Region
• Gartner has listed Secure-24 as a Mature Web and Application Hosting Vendor in the Gartner Research, “Hype Cycle for IT Outsourcing, 2010”
• “More than ever before, it is crucial to look beyond the Magic Quadrant Leaders when selecting a vendor. The vendor that is perfect for your needs may be a Niche Player.” Source: Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services (On Demand)
• “… Ted Chamberlin, Gartner Research Director … application hosting providers, which range from traditional providers such as IBM, CSC, NaviSite and HP/EDS to telcos such as AT&T, which bought ASP US internetworking, and niche providers such as Secure-24, Inc. which specialize in SAP.” Source: CIOMidmarket.com May 2009 Infrastructure Strategies

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Fred Taylor Jr. is senior manager of proactive customer service communications at Southwest. His job is to keep passenger inconveniences from becoming full-blown problems. His unit must reach out quickly to inconvenienced customers and make things right, without waiting for them to complain first. If he can do that, his unit contains the problems.

They do this by presenting customers with a range of solutions before they even know there is an issue. That includes informing them of delayed or cancelled flights and then explaining their options as soon as possible, sometimes even before they arrive at the airport.

But in 2007, an airline passenger survey by the Wall Street Journal found Southwest’s FNS program ranked near the bottom of U.S. air carriers. “Any way an airline can make things easier for its customers, especially when things aren’t going as they should, eliminates bad passenger experiences and creates loyalty,” says Tom Parsons, CEO of BestFares and a recognized authority on airline customer experiences for over 30 years.

Southwest quickly saw that it needed a communication upgrade to improve its low rating. And due to limited IT resources and staff, Southwest needed an outsourcing partner to develop, integrate, and keep its FNS leading-edge.

Southwest met Seattle-based Varolii, a provider of on-demand communication software and services with experience in developing and supporting the kind of FNS that would make life easier for Taylor and the airline’s customers. Southwest initially considered five prospects and its due-diligence research produced a scorecard. Varolii not only came out highest overall, but was also “the highest in each category,” Taylor says of his “no-brainer” decision.

Once fully engaged in late 2008, it didn’t take long for the provider to deliver the desired, positive impact.

Provider keeps Southwest passengers flowing, even during disruptions

Previously, Southwest shared flight cancellation alerts on airport PA systems, at its reservations desks, and the company Web site. Trying to personally reach all in-transit customers in a timely manner with manual outbound dialing just wasn’t feasible. This produced spikes in inbound customer service telephone requests. Airport agents also felt the crunch as they struggled to reschedule passengers amid their other normal operational duties.

Varolii implemented an automated system to place those calls and relay the information through text-to-speech software that generated pre-recorded voice clips into actual messages. The solution parses Southwest’s operational databases, identifies problem flights, looks up information on the affected customers, and calls their contact phone numbers.

“This is far from your run-of-the-mill robocall,” says Jeffrey J. Read, executive vice president for field operations with Varolii. “Automated calls often deliver bad news,” he continues. “The important thing is to efficiently engage customers, let them know we are resolving their problem, and make it easier for them to communicate with Southwest if they wish.”

Varolii’s expansive library of prerecorded clips features professional voice talent. It assembles these snippets and creates a contextual, personal message for each outbound audio advisory. The natural intonation and quality of the voice communication creates better passenger response rates, according to Taylor, who adds that customers are more engaged by a message that emulates realistic dialogue, instead of “sterile sounding” notifications typified by earlier generation data-to-voice protocols. “It doesn’t sound like a canned call,” notes Read.

Southwest can proactively send personal messages to its customers about a disruption (or potential disruption) and briefly explain the solution it offers to the individual passenger. This outsourced solution also allows the passenger to either transfer to a service agent or forward the message to another phone number, such as the customer’s travel agent or personal assistant to resolve the sudden inconvenience.

But the message itself is only half of the equation. The airline must reconcile several IT systems that track different aspects of Southwest’s flight and customer operations in order for the system to work. “The biggest challenge is assuring the right customers on the right flights are in the database and then make the data compatible so Varolii can send out the right voice message,” notes Taylor.

Partner’s work to make Southwest’s FNS best-in-class

The personal aspects of Southwest’s outbound FNS, represented by its current “voice only” protocols, dovetail into the airline’s brand, according to Taylor. “We have a reputation for doing things ‘The Southwest Way,’ providing clever, unique ways of providing personalized customer service.”

Southwest was one of the first to allow travelers to register for flight status notifications through its Web site. “But the onus was on the customer to request that service,” Taylor says. He adds that any traveler appreciates getting a heads-up that a flight has been cancelled or changed gates or that a connecting flight is running late.

This is why voice FNS is such a powerful customer service tool for Taylor. And though Southwest initially considered using e-mail and text messaging when its FNS first went up, it decided “voice-only” was the right way to go, not only because it was more personal, but because it was also more practical.

“Sometimes our customers get into situations we didn’t want them to be in, particularly at airports affected by weather,” Taylor says. “We’ve expanded to include things like gate change notifications or other issues within Southwest flight operations that might disrupt their journey.”

Eventually, e-mail and mobile text features will be part of Southwest’s FNS. “But the airline’s customer database doesn’t always contain an e-mail address or other text contact info for every passenger,” says Read, although he adds that Southwest is gathering that information more routinely. “But we have a phone number for every passenger who makes a reservation,” Taylor says. “So that’s the best way.”

“With the airlines operating on thin margins and with customer expectations reaching ever higher, outsourcing keeps them competitive,” notes Henry Harteveldt, vice president and principal analyst with Forrester Research. “Many airlines are still in business because of outsourcing.”

Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:

• Airline executives and industry analysts cite outsourcing as a primary element in any air carrier’s ability to survive in the face of thinner profit margins and heightened customer service requirements.
• Outsourcing much of its new flight notification system development allowed the buyer to receive a technologically superior and customer-friendly FNS with minimal intrusion on its core IT resources, an outcome that would have been more expensive and difficult without outsourcing.
• Today airlines are operating on thin margins. At the same time customer expectations are higher. Outsourcing needed platforms keeps them competitive.

But entrepreneurs get the itch to get back into the game. So in April, 2009, after emerging from their obligatory non-compete arising from the 2003 sale, the two men established getaroom.com. In a short time it now operates throughout the United States and Canada and is just entering Europe.

“We improved our original business model with getaroom,” Litman says. “And we enhanced it with an experienced customer care outsourcing provider.”

Getaroom created a Web presence that offers additional unpublished savings for visitors if they call a toll-free number. The Web site, instead of performing transactions online, funnels qualified buyers to its contact service center where the transaction takes place. This differs from the former Hotels.com model where the Web site performed the transactions and the call center dealt more with customer support.

Most travel and vacation Web sites are “transaction heavy,” which can sometimes work against them, according to Jakob Nielsen, Founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, which monitors and analyzes Web site usability in all industries. “Features like making a series of multiple choices or entering coupon numbers slow down the transaction process and can become an obstacle to performing Web-centric business.”

Litman sees his getaroom.com more like a resume. “Resumes get you the interview, and your personal presentation gets you the job. It’s the same thing. Our Web site drives qualified traffic to our toll-free number where outsourced call center travel professionals deliver our brand and close the deal in numbers that please us.”

Provider replicates success for the new/old buyer

Getaroom’s provider in this venture today is the same one Litman used for Hotels.com, Dallas-based Working Solutions. The provider hires skilled remote customer care professionals; most of them work from dedicated home offices.

The getaroom.com buyer experience begins with a call to the site’s toll free number. Caller and agent then spend a few minutes discussing hotels that offer unpublished rates available in the call center only. When the customer gives the agent a credit card, the customer service agent reveals the price. Discounts range from 10 to 50 percent off typical Web rates, Litman says.

“It’s the personal interaction during the customer walk-through that is the key to this success,” says Litman. “Web-only, interactive voice recognition (IVR) or offshore agents with little cultural similarities to the caller don’t produce the close ratios that getaroom.com must have,” posits Working Solutions CEO Tim Houlne.

The getaroom founders wanted to populate the center with “crËme’ de la crËme’ professionals.” And there’s no way we could sustain such a network within our lean-and-mean ‘getaroom’,” Litman admits.

“Contact centers are complex and expensive,” says Richard Snow, Vice President/Research Director for Contact Center Performance Management at Ventana Research, “which is why more companies outsource them as an alternative.” He cites main buyer drivers as a desire to keep to core business, avoid high levels of necessary start-up capital investment, and reduce recurring operational costs.

But that’s just the gravy for getaroom. “The customers’ personal relationship with these high-quality professionals produces the highest sales percentage,” says Litman. It’s a simple, yet vital lesson he took from his Hotels.com experience.

At the time of its sale to IACI, Hotels.com had one customer care provider. Litman has worked with Houlne since 2001, when the provider parlayed a proposed “supplemental home agent” pilot program into its ultimate role as that buyer’s sole customer contact provider in less than two years.

Based on getaroom’s need for sophisticated agents, it was logical for Litman to share his new venture with Houlne. And like Hotels.com before, it was a perfect fit. “We have tens of thousands of knowledgeable travel industry workers throughout North America to choose from,” notes Houlne. “They have the discipline, drive, and technological acumen to work from wherever they’re most comfortable. And fewer of these prime professionals want to work in a centralized center.” He adds that Working Solutions’ experience at managing the HR and the oversight aspects of a widely distributed network are also key to service delivery.

“We have better things to do than manage a large employee network,” notes Litman. “And the success secret of outsourcing, other than administering our engagements effectively, is to partner with companies that do better the tasks we don’t want to do ourselves to begin with.”

Outsourced customer care is service and knowledge delivery

Michael DeSalles, Strategic Analyst with Frost & Sullivan, notes the at-home customer agent attrition rate of 10 percent, compared to over 50 percent in the brick-and-mortar world, inspires companies to start looking at the home-based agent model “whether they outsource the entire service or just the provider knowledge base to use in setting up their own people to populate a work-from-home network.”

That’s why in 2008, Working Solutions entered into a partnership with technology provider WS iNet and began selectively offering the hardware and software that power distributed customer care centers in addition to its strategic and tactical advisory experience. “Some might view it as Software as a Service (SaaS),” says Houlne. “But it’s really more like Software AND A Service, because we consult and advise others how to build their own distributed customer care enterprise, how to make it produce, and how to efficiently manage it.”

There’s a benefit to gradually morphing from a singular service provider to one that is a bit more top-down. “It makes some of our outsourcing partnerships less-susceptible to commoditization,” concludes Houlne.

But in the case of getaroom.com, the services are primarily, but not completely, tactical. Houlne notes that when Litman and his associates are prepared to more fully penetrate international markets, Working Solutions should be in a position to continue partnering with the buyer. “It’s no secret that we’ve been looking to broaden our footprint offshore. Helping getaroom carry its personal message overseas could be a vehicle for that,” he says.

Litman doesn’t discount the possibility. “We’ve been successful with Working Solutions twice now, so there’s no reason to think that success can’t be further leveraged.”

Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:

• Now that the home customer relationship management (CRM) agent model is mature, companies can choose to either outsource the entire process or hire the outsourcing provider to help them set up their own remote agent networks.
• Service-based startups that partner with best-of-breed outsourcing providers have a good chance of becoming profitable because outsourcing keeps them lean and mean.
• Some retail businesses such as travel have higher close ratios when the interactions are more personal. Outsourcing allows these buyers to afford the top-notch agents they need to provide high levels of customer service.

Industry trends

Andrew Pery, Chief Marketing Officer, Kofax, says reverse outsourcing will pick up steam. This trend has two facets. First, he says the economic downturn and the weakening U.S. dollar have inspired some companies to move their outsourced work back to the domestic arena. “Today there is a preference to relocate customer-centric functions back to the United States,” he says. This trend will “accelerate” over the next five years.

Because the economics now work, Pery predicts American suppliers “will invest more aggressively in offering capabilities domestically.” He says the foreign exchange rate combined with the availability of large levels of highly-skilled American labor bring U.S. labor rates “more in line with offshore rates.” For example, suppliers can set up shop in rural areas where labor costs are lower.

Pery also points out the federal government may provide incentives to keep work at home. That possibility has inspired outsourcing firms outside the United States to open facilities there. “We envision the stimulus package will provide incentives for companies to utilize outsourcing suppliers that have facilities in the United States, including offshore firms that have set up U.S. offices to take advantage of the anticipated incentives,” he says. Infosys’s acquisition of Atlanta, Georgia-based BPO provider McCamish in November is one example.

The second major industry trend is verticalization, made possible by the strength of the second-tier suppliers. Pery says buyers of the future want specific, vertically oriented skills and domain knowledge. For example, Cerner and Capgemini are two tier-two specialty suppliers in the healthcare space. “They will grow their business at a rate higher than some of the more established firms,” Pery predicts.

The Kofax executive also points out the major firms are increasing their investment in vertical solutions as well. He sees the one-size-fits-all outsourcing model will lose popularity over the next five years.

In the past, Pery points out buyers “were somewhat reluctant to outsource their mission-critical applications. But that dynamic is changing dramatically because of the economic volatility in the downturn.” Now companies need to shed costs, so economic pressures are driving them “to outsource their mission-critical vertical applications to firms that have demonstrated experience in that area.”

In the financial services market. Paul Diegelman, Practice Manager, Finance and Accounting Optimization for BancTec, predicts commercial banks will be exiting the check and payment processing outsourcing business and strong, non-bank technology and processing providers will take up the slack and dominate the market. “The economics of check and payment processing requires high capital expenditures and onshore head count yet generates lower returns. That’s why commercial banks no longer favor it,” he says. He predicts the continued outsourcing of this process, which large corporations rely on for their working capital, will accelerate.

Don Schulman, General Manager, Finance and Administration for IBM, believes the industry, which is already consolidating, “will continue to do so in an accelerated manner.” He predicts buyers “will start to circle around a few of the big players who have the funding to make the necessary investments and drive to best practice standards.”

Ravi Kapoor, Practice Manager, Supply Chain Management for Wipro, says another area of growth for suppliers is helping buyers “embark on green initiatives throughout the enterprise.” Specifically, suppliers can advise buyers on how to make their data centers more cost-effective by going green.

Offshore

Karthik H., Research Director, Everest Research Institute, says outsourcing companies will need a delivery network of multiple locations to compete in the marketplace of the future. That means suppliers “that have a global presence and access to skills in different markets will have a greater chance to succeed,” he says.

Karthik says it’s common for Fortune 500 companies to have as many as 20 centers across the world. “They want to access the unique skills and benefits of each location,” he explains.

While he believes India will continue to retain its dominance as a global sourcing location, he feels companies “will consciously think about diversifying into other multiple locations.” Access to skills is the most important driver, in his experience. But diversifying risk is also important; the terror attacks in Mumbai last year “got people to think about diversifying some types of work.” A third driver is time zones. Suppliers have to do some types of work, like IT infrastructure maintenance, in real time.

As for locations, Karthik predicts the Philippines will record “similar or faster growth than India” because of its large talent pool and cultural affinity with the United States. Many of the other countries in Asia “will record moderate growth,” he notes. He says China is growing — focusing on its domestic market and Japan.

“Africa will be of increasing interest” in the next five years, the Everest executive predicts. The reason: the new Seacom cable has slashed telecom costs up to 80 percent. For the first time, African locations will offer a “robust infrastructure.”

In Eastern Europe, Karthik believes growth will shift from tier-one to tier-two cities. Similarly, he predicts the smaller locations in Latin America “will become increasingly significant.”

Emerging markets

Everyone interviewed agreed emerging markets will be an area of growth – whether it’s an emerging market for new outsourcing buyers, new process domains, new capabilities such as analytics, or new geographies for service-delivery locations. IBM’s Schulman says the supplier’s “emerging markets business is explosive.” He says IBM has made “significant investments” in China, Eastern Europe, India, Latin America, and other parts of Asia.

He says the growth in those emerging markets started with mature corporations trying to enter into commerce in those locales. But today and five years out, he says the real growth will reside in home-grown companies in those markets. “The financial crisis has caused a lot of fast-growing emerging markets to look inward and create a domestic capability instead of an export market,” the IBM executive explains.

These companies “recognize they need more sophisticated capabilities, so they are coming to us and asking for help.” Five years ago, he says offshoring “was all about labor arbitrage. But now there’s clearly no labor arbitrage in emerging markets. Today the industry is about more enterprise business outcomes, process optimization, and cloud computing. We are able to provide value-added services to these local companies that support their strategic evolution,” Schulman continues.

Analytics and business intelligence

Rahul Singh, Head, BFS & INS BPO for Tata Consultancy Services, predicts within two years “all customers will seek to outsource research and analytics, thus leveraging business insights from their service providers to further support their business strategies.”

Schulman says outsourcing buyers are looking for suppliers to provide “analysis and insight that would transform their businesses.” He says buyers want analytics embedded into their outsourced process “to improve productivity and drive business outcomes.” Suppliers have made significant investments in these capabilities and can provide the insight needed to drive better business decisions, which buyers “would never have achieved on their own.”

For example, IBM’s analytics services helped one client quickly identify that many of its customers were beginning to slow pay and rapidly forecast the impact on working capital. “This was something they previously could not have seen on their own,” Schulman explains.

TCS assisted a U.S. retailer in eliminating more than $10 million in inventory turnover costs by applying analytics to its supply chain services.

Mohammed Haque, Vice President & Head of Enterprise Solutions Service practice at Genpact, predicts business intelligence, which runs on top of the ERP platform, “will grow big in the next five years.” He says that’s where “most of our customers are investing heavily right now.”

Haque says outsourcing buyers want to have a “single master view of data. This knowledge improves their decision-making or increases revenue.” In the past, customers have grown through acquisitions, leaving different divisions on different platforms. The result: “They don’t have one single view of the truth,” he says. In the future, buyers want a unified view of their suppliers and their customers. So data management will be different.

He gives a procurement example. Many companies have no idea what they spend with their top three suppliers. “Without a spend analysis, they are not able to negotiate bigger discounts. They are in a much better position if we can deliver this knowledge,” he explains.

Healthcare

To help the American economy recover, this year the U.S. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which included legislation that impacts the healthcare industry. And then there’s the current Congressional action on healthcare reform. “You don’t have to go much further than the front page of the paper to understand the government is going to be taking a significantly greater role in healthcare,” says Will Saunders, COO, Government Healthcare Solutions Group for ACS.

These changes in the industry will increase outsourcing because healthcare providers and payers cannot implement these changes on their own and certainly not at the pace they want. There will be “a progressive shift toward healthcare outsourcing over the next five years,” says Dr. Harry Greenspun, Chief Medical Officer, Dell Perot Systems.

Transportation

David Cummins, Vice President of Business Development for ACS’s Transportation Solutions Group, points out the “widening gap between transportation demand resources and the ‘supply’ of infrastructure has reached crisis proportions across the globe.” The sagging economies, escalating fuel prices, and the public’s resistance to raising fuel taxes are exacerbating the situation.

At the same time, environmental concerns are “front and center.” Over the next five years, he predicts the public sector will continue to turn to outsourcing to minimize capital expenditures for increasing infrastructure capacity like new roads, transit systems, and ports. “Governments will increasingly look to the private sector to increase the efficiency of their existing capacity through technology and low labor costs,” he says. He estimates the global outsourced transportation market will grow by five to seven percent annually over the next five years.

Cummins predicts a key change in transportation outsourcing will occur over the next five years. He says buyers are “looking for outsourcing partners to share in the risk and reward of taking over significant public projects.” An example of this type of arrangement is already underway in Lima, Peru, where ACS is financing the up-front investment for a smart-card-based transit solution; in return, the supplier will share in revenue from the operations.

ERP

Haque says the current economic environment “is a major catalyst for outsourcing ERP.” Another driver is “sub-optimized performance” of past ERP installations.

The third driver is the wave of mergers the economic recession created. For example, one company’s ERP may have SAP but the other may have Oracle. Once merged, these companies have to select one platform and then implement it company-wide.

Suppliers

Ritesh Idnani, Vice President and Head of Global Sales and Marketing for Infosys BPO, predicts new specialty BPO service providers will “emerge and grow faster than the big providers.” When the next wave of consolidation occurs, he suggests some of the big providers will look at specialty firms “to expand their footprint and preserve their market leadership.” Especially valuable will be vertically oriented BPO providers with specific industry knowledge and/or IP. “That will enable the big providers to offer those services, leverage the infusion of skills, and move down market to serve the small-to-medium market, which is looking to move into the BPO market,” he predicts.

Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:

• Reverse outsourcing will grow as the foreign exchange rate and the high unemployment rate in the United States make outsourcing to suppliers on American soil financially attractive.
• The economy is causing companies to consider outsourcing some of their core competencies. But they want suppliers that have proven expertise in their domain. Verticalization will become more important in outsourcing.
• Global delivery services, or offshoring, will increase over the next five years because companies will want their outsourcers to be able to move work to multiple locations to access skills and diversify risk.
• Changes in U.S. law will stimulate growth in healthcare outsourcing. Payors and providers are realizing they lack the personnel, expertise, or facilities to manage applications that have to be on continuously and that have to comply with newly strengthened privacy and security regulations.
• Analytics services is an area of growth for outsourcing because buyers want their suppliers to provide insights from their data so they can make better decisions and improve their bottom lines.
• There will be market growth opportunities in the transportation outsourcing area because governments want to invest in technologies that make the transportation system work better. Over the next five years they will increasingly look to suppliers that are willing to enter into risk-sharing arrangements to help finance transportation initiatives.