Industry news

Consumers blame banks for the current economic conditions but this has not adversely affected their loyalty towards banking institutions. Good customer service was still found to be the main reason for strong loyalty in a new report from Convergys Corporation, Recent Trends in Retail Banking.

Some of the key report findings include:

• Customer Service is Key - Nearly half of customers’ loyalty to their primary bank is driven by two service-related factors: bank employees and issue resolution.

• One and Done - Resolving customer issues the first time was cited as the most important factor in the primary bank relationship by 29 percent of respondents. Nearly half of all calls into the contact centre involve an issue or dispute.

• Anytime, Anywhere Access - Retail banking is truly a multi-channel experience as 4 in 10 customers contacted the bank through the web, the phone, and by visiting a branch in the last year.

• Bank Branches Remain Vital - 89% of customers who contacted their bank online in the last 12 months were satisfied with the experience, yet 72% of all banking activity reported occurs in the branch.

• Loyalty Focus - Slightly over half, or 55%, said they would stay with their bank if another bank offered an incentive to switch.

• Up-sell Opportunity - Approximately 40 percent of bank customers would consider new products and services, with financial/estate planning and online brokerage services generating the most interest.

“Banks face turbulent economic times, stiffer competition, and increasing legislation. At the same time, they have to balance cost of service, an increasing focus on customer satisfaction, building loyalty and profitability. In order to do this, banks need to be nimble in supporting their customers regardless of service channel while also providing their customers with the highest level of security and identify theft protection,” said Jim Boyce, President, Global Business Units for Convergys.

Resolve Corporation, a Canadian business process outsourcing (BPO) specialist, has extended its contract with CGI Group Inc., a provider of information technology services, until 2013. The five year contract is valued at approximately $13 million.

CGI will continue to provide full mainframe infrastructure outsourcing, operations and production control as part of Resolve’s end-to-end Canadian Student Loan Processing for the Canadian Federal Government.

“Our student loan processing system is critical to the daily operation of the student loan business,” said Stephen Gesner, Executive Vice President & CIO, Resolve Corporation. “For the past 3 1/2 years CGI has provided us with a solid and dependable solution allowing us to meet the requirements of our clients. We look forward to growing our relationship with CGI as they have become one of our most trusted and service oriented partners. ”

The state of Tennessee has signed a contract with EDS to update and manage the state's Medicaid Management Information System. The contract extends the 14-year relationship between EDS and TennCare, the state agency that oversees Medicaid services for more than 1.2 million Tennesseans.

As part of the contract EDS will update the TennCare system with new computer hardware and software. In addition, EDS will provide system management, maintenance and enhancement services as well as mailroom, data entry, suspense resolution, and scanning and indexing functions.

"We are pleased to continue our partnership with EDS,” said Darin Gordon, director at TennCare. “We look forward to our continued working relationship and the implementation of enhanced computer systems and improved business practices.”

Here is an interesting statement ‘offshoring saves British tax payers money’- a stark contrast indeed to Gordon Brown’s famous nationalist missive ‘British jobs for British people’. That’s the headline that was writ large across the Times front page this Wednesday. Another offshoring bashing article ensued reigniting the debate over the perceived evils and benefits of the offshoring concept.

The story looked at the British Council’s decision to outsource 100 jobs at to India as part of a massive cost-cutting drive to save taxpayers’ money. The council it seems has finally realised the possible benefits of using offshoring to augment performance in the UK. Sticking their heads above the parapet like this was a necessity for them but also represents the first public sector organisation to make such a bold (and deplorable in most media’s eyes) move.

Final decisions about which jobs will go to India will be taken in the next few weeks but they are expected to include 58 finance posts, up to 40 IT posts and 15 posts for a new centre of excellence. This is the first time the civil service body has directly exported jobs to save costs. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which funds the British Council, is exploring similar options.

The council, which promotes British culture and language abroad, said that 500 of its 1,300 British workers would have to go in the next 18 months to save 45 million pounds. More than a fifth of these posts are to be filled in India and the body plans to bring some of the Indian recruits over to 'shadow' finance staff in Manchester.

As per usual, the tangible economic arguments of offshoring’s real benefits are being conveniently lost amid the union hubbub. But it does put the debate back on the table and allows the NOA license to have its two-cents on the issue, something that is often difficult to convey. It will be interesting to see just how the debate unravels over the next week of so. Will British people want to keep jobs in the country or will they want lower taxes? Will this argument ever be presented so starkly? Will anyone ever make this choice? What a conundrum.

Into slightly less dangerous territory now; only slightly mind. Emap has outsourced its HR, payroll and benefits to NorthgateArinso. The B2B media group has outsourced all HR, payroll and benefits delivery to NorthgateArinso.

The move follows Emap’s acquisition by Apax and the Guardian Media Group in 2008. The contract is part of a wider strategic plan to outsource all IT, finance and HR services, enabling Emap to focus on its objectives for growth. Let’s just hope they don’t start offshoring journalism or they might also find themselves in hot water. Not that offshored journalists would write in fury about jobs being offshored to them…

Yet another decidedly British piece of news was reported on sourcingfocus.com this week. Buckinghamshire County Council partners with Hays for job seekers system.

Buckinghamshire County Council and the UK’s leading recruitment specialist, Hays have partnered to create an easy-to-use system for job seekers that is believed to improve the experience for applicants and once again cost the council taxpayer less. Lower taxes and outsourcing seem to be big news this week.

The new recruitment service aims to make it easier to search and apply for jobs with the county council using online recruitment. This service will also look to reduce the time applications take to process as well as keep applicants up to date on progress. This will be welcome news to those Buckinghamshirites who have found themselves out of a job in these torrid times. Hopefully we’ll all see an upturn in new positions soon to test out the council’s swanky new system.

And to finish up, the Round-Up will pay some diligence to our cousins across the pond. The all American Starbucks has signed an outsourcing contract with Unisys. Starbucks Corporation has selected Unisys to provide data center outsourcing services to support the global coffee company’s continued expansion in China.

It seems simply noone is safe from the Coffee giant. Soon all of china will be able to experience the wonders of the Caramel Macchiato – you’ll never go back, trust us!

Under the two-year contract, Unisys will provide systems management, network management, asset tracking and software image and voice systems management services delivered from the Unisys Global Services Center in Shanghai.

So, to offshore or not to offshore, that is the question? The Round-Up will keep you posted…

Starbucks Corporation has selected Unisys to provide data center outsourcing services to support the global coffee company’s continued expansion in China.

Under the two-year contract, Unisys will provide systems management, network management, asset tracking and software image and voice systems management services delivered from the Unisys Global Services Center in Shanghai.

The contract expands the existing relationship between Unisys and Starbucks in China. Unisys has provided end-user support services to Starbucks in China since 2007.

Bill Lum, IT director of Starbucks China commented, “As we expand our presence in China, it is important for us to continue to prove a high level of customer service and manage our brand in a way that makes it relevant to a wide variety of Chinese consumers. By outsourcing IT infrastructure management to Unisys we are able to better focus our resources on our core business and growth plans.”

SABMiller, one of the world’s largest brewers, has decided to pilot Infosys Technologies ShoppingTrip360 solution to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of its in-store shopper marketing campaigns.

Yvan Goupil, Head of Insights, SABMiller Europe, commented "Engaging our existing and new customers in a meaningful and relevant way is vital to the success of all our brands. Starting with a pilot program of the Infosys ShoppingTrip360 solution, we aim to improve the effectiveness of all our European in-store marketing campaigns by helping increase shopper engagement leading to greater sales,”

The services provided by Infosys will help SABMiller analyse important shopper trends associated with the placement of products on in-store fixtures. The insights gathered from the store will help SABMiller decide which promotional display is most effective at promoting their product and which product placement areas result in the greatest sales. The first pilots will take place in select stores of the Romanian supermarket chain, iVET.

Upon successful pilot completion in Romania, SABMiller will evaluate the results and look to roll out the Infosys solution in other key markets around the world.

Emap, the B2B media group, has outsourced all HR, payroll and benefits delivery to NorthgateArinso. The move follows Emap’s acquisition by Apax and the Guardian Media Group in 2008. The contract is part of a wider strategic plan to outsource all IT, finance and HR services, enabling Emap to focus on its objectives for growth.

Emap’s Performance Director, Tracey Gray, has a vision for aligning the organisation to its core values, which encourage staff empowerment and accountability. As part of her overarching strategy, Gray has appointed heads of resourcing, employee relations, learning and development and reward. The service that NorthgateArinso is delivering to Emap complements the strategy, providing core HR services and supporting her and the directors in helping to instil employee accountability and ownership.

Key elements of the service that are aligned to the core values include self-service, which enables staff to manage their own affairs, from booking holidays to reporting sickness. Managers are then encouraged to take responsibility for following HR procedures in their own teams, using the self-service functionality and supported with an advice line, run by experts at NorthgateArinso, who can be called for guidance whenever it is required.

All of Emap’s HR process will be integrated on one platform, creating a central database that will provide integrated business information via an intuitive dashboard display. This will give Emap’s senior team the workforce information they require for accurate decision-making across the business.

Tracey Gray explained: “Soon into our search, we realised that NorthgateArinso's values were well matched to our own. The team has a good understanding of our challenges and priorities, and is well placed to support our future growth,” she added “Outsourcing the HR, flexible benefits and payroll functions to a single, consistent point of contact will not only free-up managers’ valuable time, but will ensure all HR processes are supported by a single supplier from the day the employee starts in the business to the day they leave,” concluded Gray.”

Buckinghamshire County Council and the UK’s leading recruitment specialist, Hays have partnered to create an easy-to-use system for job seekers that is believed to improve experience for applicants and cost the council taxpayer less.

The new recruitment service aims to make it easier to search and apply for jobs with the county council using online recruitment. This service will also look to reduce the time applications take to process as well as keep applicants up to date on progress.

In the first year the county council expects to save around £690,000 if recruitment levels remain the same. As well as cutting the cost of recruitment for the county council, the new process is also designed to reduce the amount of time managers spend on recruitment.

County council recruitment staff have joined Hays consultants to create a team that will provide a streamlined one-stop-shop for permanent and temporary staff. The aim is to simplify the process, provide clarity about the roles and opportunities on offer and market them effectively.

Gillian Hibberd, Corporate Director People, Policy and Communications, commented, “Taking a more streamlined approach to recruitment will enable us to create a reputation as a first choice employer attracting quality staff to run local services. We’re delighted to have Hays on-board because their specialist skills in the recruitment sector will make a real difference to the way we employ staff. We’ll be managing our budget much more effectively, for example, by reducing the time to recruit candidates".

Spinvox, the UK company famed for its voice to text message technology, has been highlighted in a BBC ‘expose’ for the use of offshore contact centres in the conversion of its customer messages. According to the article ‘the BBC suggest that the majority of messages have been heard and transcribed by call centre staff in South Africa and the Philippines.’

The BBC story has sparked much commentary in the media about the privacy of customer data if it is being handled by agents rather than technology as it has always maintained. However, the company states that the BBC ‘article contains a number of allegations over its privacy standards, technology, evidence offered by a Facebook group and finances which SpinVox believes are both incorrect and inaccurate.’

It continues ‘Claims have been made to the BBC, suggesting that the majority of messages have been heard and transcribed by call centre staff in South Africa and the Philippines. These are incorrect.’

However, in a statement the company does not entirely deny the claim. It states that: ‘All speech technology requires training. This requires humans to correct and inspect some audio and text to provide the system with corrections.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, prominent outsourcing writer and NOA Director commented in his Talking Outsourcing blog: “Perhaps if the firm had been a bit more open about the global nature of their operations in the first place they wouldn’t have Rory ‘Katherine’ Jones from the BBC breathing down their neck?”

The NOA Communications Director, Kerry Hallard, conveyed a similar message: “These media reports demonstrate the importance of good communication in any outsourcing and offshoring deal. SpinVox could have avoided this media backlash by being open and honest about its offshoring partnerships from the outset. Cloaking outsourcing intentions or contracts in secrecy does more harm than good. Rumours can be hopelessly off the mark and can cause widespread unease about the company and in this case data security. Companies must actively and openly communicate with all target audiences as early as possible.”

After the last Round-Up, it would be hard for this week not to be a walk in the park for outsourcing news. So, continue reading safe in the knowledge that I have no colossal announcements to make. Before I commence this wondrous journey into the chasm of all things positive and exciting, I must first highlight one (just one) not so positive piece of outsourcing news.

I am more than certain that you are all aware of the effect the economic downturn has had on the industry (yes, that old chestnut). This week saw a new report from TPI that said the number of outsourcing deals awarded fell 7.5 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter to a total of 135.

The TPI Index, which follows commercial outsourcing contracts of US$25 million or more, found that the market in the first half of 2009 had 11 percent fewer contracts with 22 percent lower total contract value than for the comparable six-month period in 2008. However the report also highlighted that IT outsourcing is showing early signs of stabalising. It seems the trend towards smaller outsourcing deals continues apace.

Right, now that is out of the way we can take a look at the exciting outsourcing prospects reported on this week.

Firstsource Solutions have conducted research that shows more than half of telecoms companies (55 percent) plan to increase outsourcing in the next 12 months. As always cutting costs is the main driver for telcos’ outsourcing strategies, according to the research of 85 leading telecoms companies across the world.

Those telecoms companies surveyed that already outsource reported substantial cost savings: 67 percent said that they had cut their costs by up to 40 percent through outsourcing, and nearly 20 percent reported cost savings of more than 40 percent.

Although cutting costs will continue to be the main catalyst for outsourcing, telcos reported other important drivers, such as improving the quality of customer service, including through tapping into a larger pool of experienced customer management staff, and lengthening the customer service day. Telcos also want to reduce customer churn. I told you I would have some exciting news.

Even more exciting news comes in the form of fibre optic cable being laid in East Africa this week. SEACOM, a private sector funded undersea fibre optic cable, has finally gone live across East Africa bringing super-fast communications to a previously satellite-only country. Local businesses are expecting significant benefits from the new 1,28 Terabytes per second (Tb/s) cable as large cost reductions and new connectivity spreads across the region.

The cable system, linking south and east Africa to global networks via India and Europe, overcame thousands of miles of rough seas, Somali pirates and huge technical difficulties to be switched-on across Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique this Thursday under the eyes of the global media. Thankfully, the launch went without a hitch with key SEACOM executives giving live broadcasts and presentations using the new system.

Local outsourcers are pushing the region as the newest location on the block for offshoring. East Africa is another area I did not flag up as an up and coming outsourcing destination but their ICT Board and BPO Society have big plans says otherwise. Once again, I stand corrected.

News just in means I may have to break my promise. A decidedly sticky situation has arisen for Spinvox, that erstwhile doyen of the voice recognition industry. The BBC says they’ve been using offshore BPO providers to listen-to and transcribe for their voicemail-to-text service. Spinvox maintain the service is almost entirely done via clever computers with some human interaction where the technology needs help learning words and so on. Who’s telling the truth is yet to be decided. The debate rumbles on as we go to our virtual press; watch this space and the twitterverse where a increasingly interesting multi-logue is occurring, to find out the latest.

So, readers, did I deliver? Was that a short, but incredibly sweet journey through the weeks outsourcing news? Fingers crossed the good news keeps flooding in so next week will be as much of a pleasure to write (not comparative to the pleasure you as readers have experienced in reading it of course!).

Have a great weekend.