PCI Compliance Becomes Next Big Thing for Nearshore BPO
March 4th, 2010By Kirk Laughlin
The credit card industry’s way of keeping a tight lid on fraud and other slippery activity has been through the creation of “PCI” – the short-code name for a comprehensive set of rules that govern just how credit card handlers should protect card information and the privacy of cardholders.
Contact centers, especially those in Latin America and the Caribbean that deal with payments, billing and collections, are naturally prime candidates to adopt PCI. “It’s become a big topic of late and in some situations it’s becoming ‘table stakes,’”, says industry consultant Ann Harts, of HartsGroup. “There continues to be a large flow of business opportunities for call center/BPO companies who are PCI compliant… some clients are starting to migrate to this designation as a minimum or an industry standard, even though it may not needed based on the type of work.”
For one thing, more and more customers are going to demand it, says Thomas Oronti, president of Nearshore Call Center Services, a Dominican Republic based provider that employs about 1,200 agents in three facilities in the country. Oronti told Nearshore Americas recently that PCI compliance has become a top priority for his organization over the last year. “Bigger companies want to see a PCI certificate,” he says.
Sitel Boosts “HomeShore” Program, Hires 200 in New Mexico
March 3rd, 2010Global business process outsourcing company Sitel plans to add 200 associates to its HomeShore program in Albuquerque.
The company allows associates (“agents”) to work from home while they’re helping its Fortune 500 clients manage their outsourced customer care needs, a prepared statement from Sitel said.
Sitel said that since its initial launch in 2008, the Albuquerque HomeShore program has proven to be a successful model for Sitel clients across the U.S.
“The continued demand from our valued clients to place their call center operations in the Sitel HomeShore Program is a testament to the quality of service our Albuquerque agents provide on a daily basis,” the company said.
Officials said the current recruitment drive will support the recent expansion of a major worldwide hospitality provider that has outsourced its calls to Sitel to provide customer service and technical support, both online and by telephone.
The Sitel HomeShore program has added …
Sitel’s Investment in Nicaragua “Like Striking Gold”
March 2nd, 2010By Kirk Laughlin
Sitel’s Nicaragua operation has been one of the “biggest success stories over the last 18 months” for the global BPO and contact center organization, Andrew Kokes, VP of Marketing at Sitel, told Nearshore Americas last week.
That’s a pretty bold statement for a company that employs over 60,000 workers in over 140 facilities in 27 countries around the world. But, Kokes says the value of Nicaragua became so apparent so quickly that the company opened a second facility within the first year, which is a rarity for Sitel.
“It’s been a phenomenal experience,” said Kokes. “What made it a tough place to be in the 80s, has changed dramatically… now everyone has come home and they have come back bilingual, and educated.”
In fact, about 75% of the nearly 2,000 person staff working at Sitel’s two in-country facilities …
Contact center agents are problem solvers. And solving problems all day is no easy gig. It can be hard to maintain a positive attitude; as a result, turnover is a major issue. But contact center directors can help to a great extent to keep up morale and improve retention in the process.
Customer care expert Barbara Burke recently spoke with 1to1 Magazine about employee engagement in the contact center. Burke is author of The Napkin, the Melon, and the Monkey: How to Be Happy and Successful at Work by Simply Changing Your Mind, a fable about how a positive attitude can transform a call center agent from flop to star performer. She advocates storytelling as one way managers can help their agents learn new skills and improve their current performance. Here, she provides some additional advice on engaging agents so they stay longer:
Sustaining long-term employee …
How Much has the Coup Hurt Honduras?
February 27th, 2010Is now the time for investors to take a real look at setting up BPO operations in Honduras? Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati explains why things have changed for the better since last year’s coup.
Call Center Competition “Fierce” in Guatemala and Peru a New Report Finds
February 25th, 2010SOURCE: CAllCenterInternational
The varying levels of competition and market maturity among countries have livened up the diverse Latin American market for contact center outsourcing. According to a Frost & Sullivan study, while major markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina are reaching maturity in terms of quality of service and infrastructure, the competition is fierce in developing markets such as Peru and Guatemala.
Market revenues to grow
This intense competition is keeping market participants on their toes, causing them to reposition themselves from being mere providers of contact center customer care services to offering more complex business process outsourcing (BPO) services such as logistics and channels. The analysis finds that the market earned revenues of 6.8 billion dollars in 2008 and estimates this to reach 13.7 billion dollars in 2014.
“Outsourcers’ improving ability to provide a fully integrated suite of end-to-end services covering the main business processes are standing …
“Benchmark Portal” Begins Certification of Costa Rica Contact Centers
February 12th, 2010Benchmark Portal, a US-headquartered firm that assist contact center organizations with service excellence, has set up a regional center in Costa Rica.
This company, which services 25,000 customers worldwide, choose Costa Rica as a regional headquarters due to the strong growth of the industry and also the incentives offered through Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiative (Cinde), a governmental body.
“It was decided to come here also for the teaching of English,” said CEO Bruce Belfiore Benchmark Portal.
Among other services Benchmark Portal is dedicated to certifying compliance with call center best practices and to compare results with business peers in order for companies to improve performance and correct deficiencies. The aim is to standardize and continuously improve processes and quality control.
Orlando Morales, regional manager of corporate relations, in partnership with Purdue University in the United States, applies a proprietary methodology involving 24 processes.
For example, Benchmark Portal knows that 93% …
With Eyes on Tech Services, Jamaica Begins to Move Beyond Call Centers
February 12th, 2010
The area around Kingston could become a tech center, if government plans for a business park go forward.
By Kirk Laughlin
One of the bigger bellweather moments in the migration of services’ work from India to the Nearshore came over a year ago when Delta Airlines publicly let it be known that they were investing heavily in call center functions in Jamaica and “pulling out” of South Asia.
The organization benefiting most from this was E-Services Group, which was acquired by global contact center giant ACS for $85 million. Over 4,000 E-Services employees joined ACS, and Delta has remained a key customer throughout the ownership transition.
This move seems to be part of a string of developments that are putting Jamaica – one of the most convenient Nearshore locations for North American companies – higher on the radar for outsourced services. Long seen as a modest sized call center hub, Jamaica is chipping away at reforming its image into one of a fuller-scale outsourcing destination that has the talent and capacity to play at a higher level that would include finance, accounting and technology services.
“We want to move into the next stratosphere,” says Don Gittens, senior consulting officer at trade promotion agency, Jamaica Trade and Invest, who notes that the country is focused on equipping students with a kind of technology literacy that is seeing increasing demand from US corporations.
Nearshore BPO Experts Deliver Optimistic Message to Honduran President Lobo
February 10th, 2010Tegucigalpa – American Business leaders told Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa the country is becoming better positioned to attract jobs in the field of call centers and business process outsourcing.
Leading the delegation was Ruben Sorto, a representative of Group Karims, who manages marketing at San Pedro Sula’s Altia Business Park, the first business and technology park that houses offices, multinational corporations and service customer care in the region.
Also present were Peter Ryan, principal analyst at Ovum contact center outsourcing and BPO, Jeff Pappas, senior vice president and partner at Arledge Associations (and Nearshore Americas columnist) and and Ann Harts of The Harts Group.
These companies are related to the industry of call centers, server support, back office services, telemarketing and operational bases for regional corporate headquarters. Investments in this industry have grown in recent years in Central America.
The call centers industry has created about 30,000 jobs …
Call Centers in Dominican Republic Answer Call in Haiti
February 9th, 2010
“This is a non stop job and we are working with five organizations to make sure all the people are receiving our aid,” said Emma Castro, Site Administrator for Stream.
By Karina Cuevas
A large part of the Dominican Republic call center industry has stepped up in a wide variety of ways to help alleviate the terrible suffering in Haiti.
Many of the institutions began collecting monetary donations internally through their employees, while others have obtained in-kind goods to deliver in Haiti. “Right after the earthquake, a high sense of corporate responsibility kicked in,” said Kemil Carbuccia, Sales and Marketing Manager for Nearshore Call Center Services. We always try to contribute because there is a willingness to help the people in need.”
Nearshore Call Center Services has already made three trips to the devastated nation and is planning on a fourth one within the next two weeks. Employees have delivered medicine, food and clothing to various sectors in Haiti and despite their well intentioned efforts; it does not seem like enough.
“At the beginning it was traffic and logistics [that made it difficult to get to Haiti],” said Carbuccia. Everyone wants to help, but it’s hard to organize and try to get everyone what they need.”
A client company of Nearshore is providing space for storage and thanks to contacts in Haiti; the goods are being delivered from one community to another in a somewhat efficient manner despite the lack of security engulfing the country.
