Spanish-Language Support a Key Pillar of a New WNS Deal with Intercontinental Hotels
September 1st, 2010NEW YORK, NY and MUMBAI, INDIA, Aug 31, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — WNS (Holdings) Limited , a leading provider of global business process outsourcing services, today announced a contract to deliver analytics and customer care services for IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group). Under this multi-year agreement, WNS will deliver customer care services in several languages including German, Italian, French and Spanish to IHG’s entities across Europe. WNS is also providing a dedicated analytics team to support IHG’s consumer marketing programs.
“IHG is committed to meaningful and lasting customer relationships through outstanding customer service, relevant communications, and memorable customer experiences. Our success rests on our ability to understand the needs and wants of all our guests, allowing us to treat each guest as a valued individual. We chose WNS because of their deep understanding of the travel industry, strong customer care capabilities, insightful customer analytics, and their global delivery footprint,” said Steve …
Global ICT Firms Urge Obama to Remove the Cuba Embargo
August 31st, 2010Nokia Oyj, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are urging the U.S. government to ease rules that keep them from operating in Cuba even after President Barack Obama loosened telecommunications regulations last year to promote democracy on the communist island.
Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker, is urging the U.S. to ease its 47-year-old trade embargo so it can sell handsets to Cuba. AT&T and Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless providers, urged regulators to make it easier for U.S. companies to directly connect calls to and from Cuba.
The companies’ pleas come after Obama said in April 2009 that greater contact with the outside world would reduce Cubans’ dependency on President Raul Castro’s regime. Still, other regulations prevent companies with U.S. operations from entering the market, according to a July report by the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, which advocates for an open economy.
“We don’t understand why the regulations stopped where they did,” …
Is Canada’s Call Center Industry on Life Support?
August 24th, 2010
By Tarun George
Largely unnoticed by many site selection gurus, the offshore services industry in Canada has grown at a staggering rate over the last decade. According to Statistics Canada, between 1998 and 2006 the Canadian call center industry increased in revenue by 27% annually. But now the rise of new locations in Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as the recent economic recession may necessitate a change of strategy.
Analysts across the board are calling for a move into higher value services like IT – they say the current call center-focused model is just not profitable for the country anymore. But is Canada’s call center industry really on life support? We sat down with Peter Ryan, Lead Analyst for BPO and Contact Center Outsourcing at Ovum to find out.
What’s Behind the Sudden Departure of Stream CEO Scott Murray?
August 20th, 2010
Was it Scott Murray’s brash and hard-charging style that led to his sudden departure as top boss at Stream Global Services this week? We may never know the real answer, but there are plenty of surprised looks on the faces of those who work at Stream or do business with the global call center and CRM giant, based outside of Boston. The announcement went out early today that Murray is being replaced by Kathryn Marinello, the former CEO at Ceridian, a major payroll and HR outsourcing firm.
Murray is certainly not leaving under a cloud like Mark Hurd did during his sudden resignation at HP just a few weeks ago, but the news does come as somewhat of a shock for an executive who returned to Stream to command a growth-first strategy that seemed to directly reflect the aggressive style of Murray himself. There are two clues that lead us to believe that Murray was removed – rather than him leaving by choice.
Exclusive: Where is ACS Going Next?
August 9th, 2010By Kirk Laughlin
Mike Wooden at ACS: Clients are pulling back from offshore
Multinational call center and CRM players like Teleperformance, Convergys and Stream Global Services aren’t the only major league operators looking to expand their presence in the Nearshore region.
Embolden by the deep pockets of its new parent Xerox, ACS rates high on our list of companies prime to leverage the robust interest many clients have to locate customer service operations in Latin America. Mike Wooden, senior vice president, market development, Business Process Services gave us some of his thoughts in this interview.
Teleperformance Forks Over $2 Million in Back Wages
August 5th, 2010Teleperformance USA, a Salt Lake City-based call center company, has agreed to pay almost $2 million in back overtime wages to employees in Utah and nine other states.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the settlement Wednesday following an investigation conducted by its wage and hour division in Salt Lake City.
According to settlement provisions, back wages totaling $1,978,147 will be paid to 15,862 workers in the 10 states where Teleperformance agents provided over-the-telephone customer service for clients that include Sprint Communications, Verizon Wireless and Dell Computers.
In Utah, Teleperformance has a call center in Lindon and had one in Clearfield.
Labor Department spokesman Rich Kulchewski said the overtime violations stemmed from employees not being compensated for breaks that were less than 30 minutes and for time spent waiting for work areas to become available, even through their …
Sitel’s LatAm HR Chief: Governments Could do a Better Job
August 3rd, 2010By Tarun George
The ability to find qualified and language-proficient workers is a very big deal when you’re trying to sustain or expand an outsourcing operation. The pursuit of talent is the force that drives the nearshoring engine, and there are always going to be debates about the next hot spot where great talent and attractive wages converge. Julio Mosquera-Stanziola, Sitel‘s Regional HR Director for Latin American Operations is an expert at finding the next great talent pool – so we decided to find out what he thinks about the current market. Hear why he thinks Chile, Colombia and Nicaragua are leading destinations in Latin America… and more.
Nicaragua Becomes Site of Second Facility for 24/7 in Latin America
August 3rd, 2010
Nicaragua, Monday, August 2, 2010: 24/7 Customer, the global leader in predictive interaction solutions, announced the launch of its contact center in Managua, Nicaragua. The company set up its tenth center world-wide, to deliver voice based inbound customer support service. Located in Accedo Technology Park, it currently employs nearly 150 people with plans to ramp up to 1000 people in the next 12-18 months.
P V Kannan, Co-founder and CEO of 24/7 Customer Inc said: “The opening of the new delivery center in Managua is an integral part of our global expansion plan and emphasizes our focus in the ‘Americas’ (Latin & Central America). Nicaragua as a country has displayed great potential to be the next preferred outsourcing destination in the contact center industry. We are amongst the first to set up operations here. The positive response from our clients to this region as a preferred near shore destination has been …
West Corp. Opens 400 Seat Contact Center in Guadalajara
August 3rd, 2010Business Wire 2010 2010-08-03 00:15:04: West Customer Management Group today announced the opening of a new customer contact center in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Through this state-of-the-art facility and access to Guadalajara’s educated and bilingual workforce, West is able to provide a near-shore location that offers both high-quality customer service and greater cost efficiencies. “West is very excited about the new Guadalajara facility,” said Matthew Driscoll, executive vice president, West Customer Management Group.
“We carefully selected this location so we could provide our clients with the kind of cost efficiencies and quality customer service they expect from West.” The new Guadalajara site geographically extends West’s near-shore contact center solutions, and combines the advantages of lower-cost labor with proven management strength. A mix of U.S. and local leadership will manage the new site to adapt proven expertise to the local environment.
West will utilize a redundant architecture and infrastructure that is similar to its U.S. based …
Sykes Revenue in the Americas Declines
August 3rd, 2010TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 2, 2010 — Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated (“SYKES” or the “Company”) , a global leader in providing outsourced customer contact management solutions and services in the business process outsourcing (BPO) arena, announced today second-quarter 2010 financial results.
Second quarter 2010 Highlights
— Second quarter 2010 revenues of $299.2 million increased $90.3 million,
or 43.3%, over the comparable quarter last year; second quarter 2010
revenues included $98.5 million in contribution from the ICT
acquisition
— Second quarter 2010 operating margin was 2.9% versus 8.2% on a
comparable basis; on an adjusted basis, a non-GAAP measure, which
includes the ICT acquisition but excludes ICT acquisition-related costs
(see Exhibit 4 for reconciliation), second quarter 2010 operating …
