There has always been a big divide between those suppliers that are comfortable handling voice and those suppliers that were comfortable handling data with very few comfortable with both. However, the impact of digital is such that it increases the need for voice and data convergence. A common misconception in customer service is that the number of transactions is going down. It isn’t, it[...]

There’s another disruptive force in BPO that no-one likes to talk about. It’s called labor arbitrage. Everyone is keeping a bit quiet about this one. It’s nothing like as sexy as robotics, or analytics, or SMAC, but it’s also a disruptive force. One side of labor arbitrage within labor arbitrage is relatively defensive, but in spite of automation and robotics, mature &ld[...]

Robotics has moved incredibly fast over the past year, but so has analytics. Analytics has been around in support of process improvement initiatives & Lean Six sigma projects for many years. It has also been present in areas like fraud analytics, which means at a personal level that you now have to re-instate your credit card most weeks. However, analytics is now becoming much more pervasiv[...]

Changes in banks’ regulatory capital requirements for businesses are leading banks to exit or downsize lines of business and increase the focus on other lines of business. Payments is an area where banks and non-banks are significantly increasing their commitments. Over the next five years the payments industry will change its entire shape, structure, and offerings. In the past, the complexi[...]

This blog is the first of seven in a series looking at six disruptive forces and their implications for BPO. Some of these are widely talked about, others less so. This first blog sets the scene and looks at the impact of robotics. Subsequent blogs will consider the implications of: Analytics  becoming all-pervasive and increasingly predictive Labor arbitrage is dead – long live l[...]

As reported in NelsonHall’s 2014 RPO market analysis, with a global shortage of talent predicted for the foreseeable future, RPO buyers will continue to seek specialists to attract candidates through the use of social networks and to create a pipeline of passive candidates (i.e. talent communities) to improve speed, quality of hire and retention of talent. Nine out of 10 companies in the [...]

This week NelsonHall held its quarterly IT outsourcing (ITO) Index webcast. We have conducted these calls for the last six years to monitor developments in ITO from a quantitative perspective. When we introduced the Index, ITO had largely moved from full outsourcing to a selective outsourcing approach, and Indian vendors were deploying their land and expand strategy with the occasional one-off meg[...]

Virtusa recently briefed NelsonHall on its gamification approach within its software testing offering. Virtusa is a fast growing offshore (India and Sri Lanka) oriented service provider. Its FY 2014 (year ended March 31, 2014) revenues were $397m, a growth of 19%. This followed growth of 20% in FY 2013 and 27% in FY 2012. The company has just over 8k employees. Founded in 1996 and headquartered[...]

This is the last set of quarterly results Unisys under the leadership of Ed Coleman – and it has been a last hurrah: Revenues were $883, up 11% y/y, up 10% in constant currency: the strongest quarter of growth for many years at Unisys Operating income was $77m, an operating margin of 8.7%, up 570 bps from a margin of 3.0% in Q3 2013. Significantly, the topline gro[...]

NelsonHall’s latest CMS market analysis focuses on the increasing importance of transformational CMS, whereby a vendor not only takes over the running of a client’s call center processes, but seeks to optimize these processes to achieve the desired business goals of the organization. In the current market, the need to reduce cost while maintaining or enhancing customer satisfaction [...]

Xerox Services Q3 Results: Any Signs of Progress? Xerox Services, now 57% of total Xerox Group revenues, is critical to the future of Xerox: it is its engine for future growth.We have been waiting for a better quarter for some time, but Q3 was not a stellar quarter for Xerox Services. Revenues Flat and Signings Down, with ITO the weakest link Xerox Services revenues in 2014 YTD are flat &[...]

In his latest monthly newsletter, U.K. money-saving guru Martin Lewis gives his readers advice on how to make money from filling in online surveys. I rather like his opening line, which reads “Willing to give views on One Direction, washing-up liquid or what goes on between your bedsheets? If so, it's possible to earn £100s a year, without any special skill or talent.” Of [...]

So far, 2014 has been a mixed year for Quindell; it faced damning speculation from Gotham City Research in April (which has since been rejected) and a failed partnership with the RAC in September, which would have seen ingenie’s telematics services being made available to all drivers, not just 17 to 25 year olds, from July. On the plus side, there has also been a number of signi[...]

Last week we looked at Infosys' quarterly results. It has been another busy week of quarterly reports from some of the Indian oriented service providers. How did five of them do? Syntel (Q3 CY14): Softness in Healthcare Greater than Expected Revenue was $228.3m, up 8.8% y/y, but slightly below consensus Operating margin was 29.8%, down 610 bps y/y, with less benefit from rupee depre[...]

NelsonHall recently attended HP’s security analyst day in London. The session provided a deep dive into HP's threat intelligence and the application of this intelligence into its security products line. Concerns about security issues are expanding beyond CSOs/CISOs to the rest of the C suite, even commanding the attention of CEOs.  HP highlighted that Conversation[...]

Accenture’s recent analyst event in New York was essentially a platform for it to showcase capabilities which it believes are key differentiators, both in terms of its attributes and also highlighting some areas of its portfolio which position it well for current and future profitable growth. The tone throughout was bullish re current and future performance - and recent performance supp[...]

At last week’s 2014 HR Technology conference I met with several of the RPO providers. Discussions included service offerings, latest trends, new business and growth. My meetings confirmed findings reported in NelsonHall’s Q1 2014 RPO market analysis that RPO growth would be mid-teens in 2014. RPO is thriving, with vendors reporting growth ranging from the low teens to 30%. And one[...]

NelsonHall recently attended Accenture’s annual analyst meet in New York City. We had the opportunity to discuss operations (BPO and IT infrastructure management) market initiatives, a major focus area for Accenture, representing $6bn in revenues (~20% of total revenues), with Accenture executives. Accenture and is betting heavily on “Digital” to create the “new Accentur[...]

Infosys reported Q2 FY15 results today and new CEO Vishal Sikka took the occasion to share his strategic vision for the company. Sikka is quite an orator, for example declaring his aspiration for Infosys to once again be a bellwether of the IT services sector, and to achieving above average topline growth and margin. Anyone who was looking to learn something more about Sikka’s l[...]

As part of its Analyst Day, Unisys provided NelsonHall an update on its end-user computing services activities. The company is aiming to enhance its end-user experience, de-emphasizing its traditional service desk approach and aiming to add alternative channels for connecting end-users and support personnel. As part of this initiative, the company is spreading the usage of its Tech Caf&eacut[...]