2015 European Contact Center Outsourcing Visionary Innovation Leadership Award

Transcription

1 2015 European Contact Center Outsourcing Visionary Innovation Leadership Award 2015

2 Contents Background and Company Performance... 3 Industry Challenges... 3 Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation... 3 Conclusion... 6 Significance of Visionary Innovation Leadership... 7 Understanding Visionary Innovation Leadership... 7 Key Benchmarking Criteria... 8 Best Practice Award Analysis for Transcom... 8 Decision Support Scorecard... 8 Focus on the Future... 9 Best Practices Implementation... 9 Decision Support Matrix The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

3 Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges The contact center outsourcing market in Europe is highly-competitive. It is therefore often difficult for enterprise decision-makers to differentiate between the services offered by competing providers and to determine what partnerships best suit their organization. At the same time, the market inhabits a landscape across which today s tech savvy consumer flits at a high rate of speed, utilizing a variety of communication channels with which to express his or her opinions (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instant Message, , phone call, etc.). Meantime, in 2015, a high proportion of global consumers believe recommendations from friends and family are the most trustworthy sources of information regarding brands, up considerably from just a few years before. All the while, customers dialing into a contact center embark on a Customer Experience journey which they expect to end with a solution to their query. They feel more valued when organizations understand and manage this journey smoothly, by keeping track of all their inquiries irrespective of the medium chosen for communication. Indeed, organizations are aware that modern consumers can shift brands if they feel that they are not receiving excellent support. What are providers of customer care services to do? Particularly within a region as vast and differentiated as that of Europe? After all, agents often find it challenging to collate inquiries from different channels and provide good customer service due to issues such as delays in juggling between various interfaces and uncertainty regarding how to use highly complicated CRM tools. To address this challenge and ensure customer loyalty, forwardlooking brands are investing in new methods in order to try and improve their customer service. Transcom is one provider seeking to deliver a digital solution to client customers that unifies all communication media in the name of a positive Customer Experience. And in 2015, the company is looking to innovate its service across the complex European landscape in other ways as well. As a global Customer Experience specialist, Transcom is a provider that continues to focus on helping client companies enhance their business performance. Simply put, Transcom s vision is to be recognized as a both a European and global leader in its space. Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation Criterion 1: Focus on Unmet Needs Frost & Sullivan is impressed that Transcom is investing in a unique new Europe-based research and development project over the next three years called Smart Digital Ecosystem for Customer Experience Enhancement, or LeonarDo The project s aim is to define solutions, tools, methods, and techniques designed to improve the customer service process and effectively exploit the potential offered by new digital Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

4 technologies. In fact, Transcom is taking the unusual step of partnering with the University of L Aquila, which has a strong record of research and innovation, and is part of a network of small and dynamic enterprises operating in the Abruzzi area in the ICT and customer management fields. The initiative will be headquartered in Transcom s L Aquila offices in Italy and led by resources provided by both partners involved in the initiative. Frost & Sullivan is not aware of any other industry initiative that seeks to benefit from the strengths and insights of a specific academic institution while also benefitting from one of Europe s more innovative and entrepreneurial geographic regions. Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends In an ever more connected world (in its Mega Trends research, Frost & Sullivan describes a world of Connected Living in which consumers use many different devices to experience compelling new services that integrate video, voice, and data services and provide access and ubiquitous connectivity anytime and anywhere) Transcom notes that innovation, agility, and best practice implementation are things its clients expect it to bring to their customer service organizations. As the company states, They want us to push them to stay ahead and to help put them in a position from which they are able to benefit from the unrelenting change that characterizes many industries today. As such, Transcom understands that contact centers are complex environments which merge many different disciplines and skills, and continuous improvement is necessary in each individual area, but also in terms of how the different components are combined into customized solutions for each client. One additional (and recent) example of the ways in which Transcom is aligning itself with emerging dynamics (specific to both Europe and North America) and offering customized solutions to clients is through a new Transcom contact center that was recently opened in Cali, Colombia that strengthens Transcom s position when it comes to offshore delivery capacity for clients in Spain. Transcom believes that demand for Spanish-language services will increase considerably (both for Europe and North America), and Colombia is a location that delivers high-quality services in a cost-effective manner. Criterion 3: Growth Pipeline Transcom continues to expand into new markets and leverage existing client relationships to do so. And the company reports that it also has acquired several new clients with global potential. Meanwhile, Frost & Sullivan notes that Transcom is one of the top players in terms of delivery capacity in Europe. The company has an excellent mix of onshore and near-shore delivery locations featuring key multilingual capabilities. In fact, in 2014, Transcom expanded in Eastern Europe for domestic business (new sites opened in Szeged, Hungary and Belgrade, Serbia). Meanwhile, Gdansk, Poland also developed into a multilingual site, primarily for near shore delivery to European countries. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

5 The company also plans to grow its presence in the UK and Germany. In short, Transcom s ambitions for Europe remain significant. Criterion 4: Vision Alignment Recently, Transcom has pushed organizational changes in order to promote increased focus and accountability, to better align the organization s mission, vision, strategy, and execution. Consider that at the beginning of 2014, the company announced a realignment of the management structure. Transcom s President & CEO, Johan Eriksson, assumed responsibility for the North America & Asia Pacific region. Neil Rae, formerly General Manager for the North America & Asia Pacific region, now has responsibility for operations in North America. Siva Subramaniam, formerly Country Manager for the Philippines and Head of Sales for Asia Pacific, has taken over responsibility for activities in Asia Pacific. Europe too is being brought into alignment with a changing market environment. When it comes to the challenging French market, in August, 2013, Transcom signed a 5.3 million settlement agreement releasing it from any further liabilities with respect to the liquidation of its former French subsidiary. As the company noted at the time, The 5.3 million cost should be viewed in the context of the significant negative cash flows generated by the former French subsidiary during the last few years, amounting to 12.5 million in 2012 alone. However, it is important to note that while Transcom no longer has any operations in France, it continues to offer French-language services to clients from its near shore centers in Europe and North Africa. Meanwhile, Germany is being realigned to fit Transcom leadership s vision. On December 30, 2013, Transcom announced the successful closing of the divestment of its German Credit Management Services operations (CMS Germany) to Tesch Group, a portfolio company of Avedon Capital Partners, for 9.0 million on a cash and debt free basis. CMS Germany had a turnover of 9.0 million in Frost & Sullivan feels this should mean Transcom is poised to offer more focused, effective customer care services in the heart of Europe. Criterion 5: Process Design Frost & Sullivan also is impressed with Transcom s efforts in continually improving its processes. Consider its focus on workforce optimization. Transcom points out that workforce optimization is at the core of its client proposition. Its approach to recruitment, induction, performance management, and organizational culture adaptation has been refined over many years across several hundreds of deployments in different industries and geographies. It also invests in processes, methods, and tools with the aim of helping its employees deliver better services with lower risk, higher consistency, and better efficiency. Still, in 2013, Transcom looked to make the process around this important function even better, creating a knowledge base for a global consumer electronics client in order to lower Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

6 handle times and improve quality and productivity. Before the implementation of the tool, information supporting customer service representatives was relatively inconsistent and resided in multiple, non-integrated, systems. The new one-stop-shop solution brought together process maps, decision trees, simulators, FAQs, and product how-to information. The information is refined and enriched by agent feedback, content ratings and rankings of the most viewed sections. Since the launch of the system, average handle time has decreased while customer satisfaction scores are up by 14 percentage points. Criterion 6: Operational Efficiency Transcom s approach to delivering a quality Customer Experience is built on operational efficiency in the realm of data collection and analysis. The company notes that the many data insights it gathers help enable innovation and also drive greater efficiencies and cost savings through operational process optimization. In order to run the business more efficiently and track its performance against key performance indicators (KPIs), data is automatically collected on Transcom s 1.4 million daily customer interactions. This is complemented by additional information, most of which is gathered during live customer interactions. Transcom adds that data collection and analysis, root cause analysis, and speech analytics are becoming more critical as clients expect them all to play an ever-greater role in improving customer loyalty. And analytics is being applied to an increasing number of areas, both to improve the Customer Experience and create efficiency improvements in operations. For example, as the number of interaction channels keeps growing, structured analysis can help make better decisions in terms of right channeling different types of issues (i.e. proactively directing contacts to the channel that is best suited to addressing the customer s need). Conclusion Transcom s suite of CM contact center BPO services includes customer care, sales, technical support, and collections services, delivered through its network of contact centers and work-at-home agent network. But the company also offers a broader range of services, such as legal services tailored for the banking sector, differentiating it from many of its peers in the industry. Transcom also offers other types of back-office services and interpretation services in approximately ten languages in a call center environment. All the while, the company s leadership continues to push ahead with innovative new approaches to a sometimes brutally competitive market in Europe. With its strong overall performance and forward-thinking initiatives in Europe, Transcom has earned Frost & Sullivan s 2015 Visionary Innovation Leadership Award for that region of the world. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

7 Significance of Visionary Innovation Leadership A visionary innovation leadership position enables a market participant to deliver highly competitive products and solutions that transform the way individuals and businesses perform their daily activities. Such products and solutions set new, long-lasting trends in how technologies are deployed and consumed by businesses and end users. Most important, they deliver unique and differentiated benefits that can greatly improve business performance as well as individuals work and personal lives. These improvements are measured by customer demand, brand strength, and competitive positioning, as explored further below. Understanding Visionary Innovation Leadership Visionary Innovation is the ability to innovate today in the light of perceived changes and opportunities that will arise from Mega Trends in the future. It is the ability to scout and detect unmet (and as yet undefined) needs and proactively address them with disruptive solutions that cater to new and unique customers, lifestyles, technologies, and markets. At the heart of visionary innovation is a deep understanding of the implications and global ramifications of Mega Trends, leading to correct identification and ultimate capture of niche and white-space market opportunities in the future. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

8 Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Visionary Innovation Leadership Award, we evaluated two key factors Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation according to the criteria identified below. Focus on the Future Criterion 1: Focus on Unmet Needs Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Criterion 3: Growth Pipeline Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy Criterion 5: Growth Performance Best Practices Implementation Criterion 1: Vision Alignment Criterion 2: Process Design Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency Criterion 4: Technological Sophistication Criterion 5: Company Culture Best Practice Award Analysis for Transcom Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below. RATINGS GUIDELINES The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Focus on the Future and Best Practices Implementation (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

9 The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players in as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3. Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Visionary Innovation Leadership Focus on the Future Best Practices Implementation Average Rating Transcom Competitor Competitor Focus on the Future Criterion 1: Focus on Unmet Needs Requirement: Implementing a robust process to continuously unearth customers unmet or under-served needs, and creating the products or solutions to address them effectively Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Requirement: Incorporating long-range, macro-level scenarios into the innovation strategy, thereby enabling first to market growth opportunities solutions Criterion 3: Growth Pipeline Requirement: Best-in-class process to continuously identify and prioritize future growth opportunities leveraging both internal and external sources Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy Requirement: Strategic focus in creating a leadership position in a potentially uncontested market space, manifested by stiff barriers to entry for competitors Criterion 5: Growth Performance Requirement: Growth success linked tangibly to new growth opportunities identified though visionary innovation Best Practices Implementation Criterion 1: Vision Alignment Requirement: The executive team is aligned on the organization s mission, vision, strategy and execution Criterion 2: Process Design Requirement: Processes support the efficient and consistent implementation of tactics designed to implement the strategy Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency Requirement: Staff performs assigned tactics seamlessly, quickly, and to a high quality standard Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

10 Criterion 4: Technological Sophistication Requirements: Systems enable companywide transparency, communication, and efficiency Criterion 5: Company Culture Requirement: The executive team sets the standard for commitment to customers, quality, and staff, which translates directly into front-line performance excellence Decision Support Matrix Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels. High Transcom Competitor 2 Best Practices Implementation Competitor 3 Low Low Focus on the Future High Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

11 The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at bestin-class levels. 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

12 Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and assess their fit to best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process. STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 1 Monitor, target, and screen Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe Conduct in-depth industry research Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all bestpractice criteria 2 Perform 360-degree research Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners Assess candidates fit with best-practice criteria Rank all candidates Matrix positioning all candidates performance relative to one another 3 Invite thought leadership in best practices Perform in-depth examination of all candidates Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all candidates Identify any information gaps Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates 4 Initiate research director review Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on candidates performance Update candidate profiles Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper 5 Assemble panel of industry experts Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates Refined list of prioritized award candidates 6 Conduct global industry review Build consensus on award candidates eligibility Hold global team meeting to review all candidates Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide 7 Perform quality check Develop official award consideration materials Perform final performance benchmarking activities Write nominations Perform quality review High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees successes 8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria 9 Communicate recognition Inform award recipient of award recognition Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for continued success Celebrate the recipient s performance Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth

13 STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 10 Take strategic action The award recipient may license the award for use in external communication and outreach to stakeholders and customers Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award s role in future strategic planning Widespread awareness of recipient s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan We Accelerate Growth