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Nov 06, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
NelsonHall has recently published a report on Digital Customer Experience Services, and one of the trends explored is the evolving competition in customer experience (CX) consulting. The traditional ecosystem includes distinct players with clear-cut roles:
Big five management consulting firms such as Deloitte or PwC, providing strategy-level advisory which covers CX
Niche UX [...]
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Sep 21, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
Bertelsmann, the parent company of Arvato CRM Solutions, has announced plans to combine Arvato CRM with the CX services business of the Pan-African Saham Group. The joint venture will have 50/50 ownership, with ~ €1.2bn combined annual revenues and ~48k employees in 25 countries. The deal is expected to close in January 2019.
Saham Group & partnership history
Founded in 1995 in [...]
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Aug 31, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
In February, industry veteran and CEO of SYKES, Chuck Sykes, commented during the earnings call on CX services market trends: ‘… in the U.S., at least in my time, there is no time in the company's history that I can recall seeing this level of labor challenge. And it actually is something that you're going to see in a lot of developed countries around the world.&[...]
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Jul 23, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
Currently, the level of automation in the front-office is lower than it is for middle and back-office processes, with reasons including the lower cost of handling customer-facing processes, established offshore models for labor arbitrage, and lack of client interest. However, the upside of this relatively slow uptake is that automation can now be applied to multiple areas of CX, incl[...]
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Jun 29, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
With its Q2 results yesterday, SYNNEX, the parent company of Concentrix, announced its intention to acquire Convergys, the second largest CX services provider and a public company with ~$2.8bn annual revenues. SYNNEX will pay ~ $2.43bn (includes $26.50 per share and repayment of $315m net debt). The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2018.
The largest CX Services provider in Nor[...]
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Jun 15, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
After several months of media speculation, Teleperformance officially announced yesterday an agreement to acquire Intelenet Global Services from the private equity Blackstone for a total consideration of $1bn.
Boost for Indian market
The deal will expand Teleperformance’s topline growth and have a positive impact of around +10% on the company’s earnings per share in[...]
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May 01, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
For many years, the telecoms sector has been the dominant market for customer experience (CX) services providers. However, over the last few years, consolidation, flat performance, decreasing margins caused by market saturation, new digital models and competitors, and unfavorable regulations (e.g. Eurotariff) have eroded the significance of the telecoms sector for CX services provide[...]
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Mar 20, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
Last week Aegis Global and StarTek announced the creation of a combined company. The merger will see Aegis majority owner PE Capital Square Partners swap shares with the NYSE listed StarTek, to reach a ~55% stake in the merged company. The deal is expected to close by Q3 2018. Here I look at the implications of the merger.
Return to the U.S. for Aegis
For Aegis, the merger fol[...]
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Mar 12, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
NelsonHall recently visited WNS’ Analytics CoE in Bangalore. Research & analytics (R&A) services are key activities for WNS, as a first point of entry into new clients, and also as a higher margin activity in existing accounts. Readers of NelsonHall’s Quarterly Updates on WNS will be aware that WNS is looking to increase the level of annuity revenues from analytic[...]
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Feb 22, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
In our latest CX services research in collaboration with NASSCOM, we have mapped how Indian CX services channel mix will change by 2020, as shown in the following infographic.
NelsonHall’s Customer Experience Services program delivers the most comprehensive insight for buyers and providers of CX services. For more information, contact Guy Saunders.[...]
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Feb 20, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
In our latest CX services research in collaboration with NASSCOM, we identified the top 3 mechanisms for improving key CX metrics: Net Promoter Score, First Call Resolution, Conversion, and Turn-Around Time & Average Handling Time, as shown in the following infographic.
NelsonHall’s Customer Experience Services program delivers the most comprehensive insight f[...]
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Feb 16, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
In our latest CX services research in collaboration with NASSCOM, we identified the 9 key stages of adoption for next generation customer service, as shown in the following infographic.
Insights into the differences across client industries and the best practices applied by vendors are available in NelsonHall’s Customer Experience Services program. For more information, contact [...]
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Jan 17, 2018, by Ivan Kotzev
In my predictions for the customer experience services industry a year ago, I noted that political risks will replace security concerns as the biggest external threat to the industry. Looking ahead to 2018, regulatory changes and government policies will have a lasting impact on the selection of delivery locations, country investment plans, and market presence. Here I take a closer l[...]
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Dec 13, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
I recently attended HGS’ forum on the trends and challenges in CX for the European Consumer Packaged Goods (FMCG) market. In the company’s West London center, clients and prospects including Colgate, Danone, L’Oréal, Nespresso, Nomad Foods, and Mars discussed the ways customer service can drive ecommerce and augment sales.
Digital as a force for disruption[...]
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Dec 04, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
Recently, I had a chance to visit Arvato’s U.K. and Ireland HQ in Slough, ~20 miles (30km) west of London, to witness its customer experience operations and how the company is applying digital channels and automation.
A mix of public and private sector clients
Arvato U.K. & Ireland provides customer experience services, finance and accounting (record to report, order [...]
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Nov 07, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
This month, Capgemini is launching a new version of its omnichannel cloud platform, Odigo™. I interviewed Erwan Le Duff, Head of Prosodie-Capgemini, about the new platform features, the evolution of self-service, and the future of customer experience. Below is a video of highlights from the interview, followed by a brief introduction to Odigo and a full transcript of the interview.
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Oct 30, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
Post-sales support functions are typically cost centers: large, labor-intensive operations with significant overheads and no financially attributable benefit to the bottom line. This environment is changing, with organizations gradually understanding the revenue generation opportunities in support services such as technical support and afterlife maintenance. I recently had a co[...]
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Oct 18, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
The traditional (and now universally accepted as outdated) model for multi-channel support looked something like this, with differences primarily between the types or number of channels:
However, as customers became digital and mobile, the model has shifted to something like this:
This model originated with marketers and retailers, where omnichannel means the ability to purchase in t[...]
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Jul 05, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
On June 8th, Italian BPS provider Comdata announced the acquisition of the French group Izium, which includes the CMS provider B2S, for ~€200m. The acquisition will be the first entry for Comdata in France and will lift the company to a top 5 CMS provider in Europe with estimated proforma revenues of ~€750m for 2017.
Entry into a mature and healthy French CX market
Under the de[...]
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Jun 28, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
In April 2017, TeleTech acquired healthcare BPS provider Connextions for $80m. The acquisition makes healthcare the second largest vertical for TeleTech, expected to reach ~21% of their annual revenue at ~$300m. I spoke with TeleTech recently to discuss the acquisition and their focus on the healthcare space.
TeleTech’s Healthcare Business at a Glance
TeleTech’s hea[...]
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May 30, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
NelsonHall recently attended the HGS Analyst and Advisory Summit in NYC. The event combined client perspectives with an update on the company’s healthcare business, a review of the latest offerings within its DigiCX suite of digital services, and discussion of the changing nature of customer experience (CX).
Optimizing the healthcare payer member experience
In 2015, HGS acquired a [...]
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May 23, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
Last week, NelsonHall attended the Sitel Summit in Miami. Titled ‘Expanding the Digital CX Frontier’, the event was an opportunity for Sitel to update the analyst community on their new structure, introduce new senior executives, show its new global HQ, and share first-hand experiences of successful CX digital journeys.
From contact center company to a group of global[...]
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Apr 26, 2017, by Ivan Kotzev
While Facebook banks on the smartphone camera to digitalize offline relationships, and sales people use Snapchat to sell real estate, the main challenges for marketers to reach this level of interaction are structural – how to visualize huge amounts of disparate data to get actionable insights fast at a granular level. Here I take a look at how one CMS vendor, WNS, is tackling [...]