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Konecta-Comdata Merger Creates a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Giant – What Does it Mean for the CXM Market?

May 18, 2022

The planned merger announced last month between Konecta, the leading provider of Spanish-speaking Customer Experience solutions, with Italy-based customer management provider Comdata will create the sixth-largest player by revenue in the customer experience Management (CXM) BPO sector. This consolidation will intensify competition in the attractive CXM market, with the combined entity commanding close to €2 billion in revenues and €300 million in EBITDA. Read on to find out what this big deal will mean.

Creation of a global champion

Comdata

Global CXM provider Comdata offers end-to-end management solutions (acquisition, retention, customer service, technical support, and credit collection) in 30 languages across four continents and 21 countries with its network of 50,000-plus agents. Headquartered in Milan, it served more than 670 clients in 2021, generating revenue of approximately €980 million.

Konecta

Konecta, acquired by Pacheco together with the company’s management team in 2019, is a leading tech-enabled end-to-end CX BPO player in the Spanish-speaking markets. It has successfully integrated different companies such as the Brazilian Uranet and the Spanish Rockethall group, reinforcing the company’s leadership in Artificial Intelligence, digital marketing, and big data solutions. In 2021, it generated revenue and EBITDA of approximately €918 million and €148 million, respectively.

Combined entity

Subject to approval by authorities, the merger is expected in the third quarter of 2022, creating a global CXM leader capable of providing the “best shoring solution” to local, regional, and global clients in 30-plus languages across industries such as finance and insurance, technology, telco, retail and e-commerce, utilities, and healthcare.

The combined entity will be headquartered in Madrid (Spain), jointly chaired by the CEOs of Konecta and Comdata. It will serve more than 500 large corporations across Europe and America, leveraging the expertise of 130,000-plus employees. According to a statement by the companies, “the new group has a solid financial structure and will take advantage of its position in Spain, Latin America, Italy, and France to deploy all its commercial and operational capacity in its strategic markets. In addition, it will have additional capabilities to fuel its growth in the North American market and throughout Europe.”

Key drivers of the merger

The advantages of this deal are:

Expansion in Latin American and Spanish markets: The combined entity will become the market leader in Spain and Italy with a strong presence in Latin American domestic markets such as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Argentina, and Chile. It will have over 500 large corporate clients in Europe and Latin America. The new company will enjoy the advantage of Konecta’s strong dominance in the Spanish market, where Konecta has been aggressively expanding in the past few years, especially by acquiring four different Spanish companies that were part of the Rockethall Group in 2020. In these markets, the joint company will have a significant role in telecom, BFSI, utilities and energy, the consumer goods sector, and several big tech and new economy global brands
Enhanced delivery capabilities in Latin America: Labor-cost pressures, the talent shortage in onshore North America, and the desire to relocate some offshore operations closer after the pandemic have increased Latin America’s attractiveness for nearshore delivery capabilities. Some of the latest examples include Transcom’s re-entry in Colombia; new sites opening in Trinidad and Tobago by Teleperformance, iQor, and Valenta BPO; and itel’s acquisition of Emerge BPO with employees in Guyana and Honduras. The combined entity will have strong nearshore delivery capabilities to support US clients, including 20 sites in Colombia and seven in Mexico, offering a multi-country delivery model across the entire LATAM region
Differentiated customers: Both Konecta and Comdata are leaders in their respective local markets. The majority of Konecta’s revenue comes from Spain, Portugal, and Latin American regions, with Comdata having a strong presence in Italy, France, and some Latin American countries. Overall, the client overlap between both service providers is very limited, reducing the revenue loss due to cannibalization
Operational synergies: Buyers’ preferences when outsourcing CXM have evolved from the traditional levers of cost and scale to now prioritizing digital CX capabilities, end-to-end integration, and value-added services in their portfolio. This merger will allow the sharing and cross-selling of certain specific CX transformation capabilities such as Comdata’s C-suite tools, expertise in Voice of the Customer (VOC), and consulting and operational redesign services with Konecta’s content and performance marketing and conversational commerce offerings. Through its Uranet subsidiary in Brazil, Konecta also owns platforms for customer journey orchestration, knowledge management, and contact center infrastructure

Competition among other global providers

With US$2 billion in revenue and 130,000 agents, the combined entity gives tough competition to other global CXM providers such as Teleperformance, Sitel, and Concentrix. Below is a look at the capabilities of these global providers in comparison to the combined entity.

	Teleperformance	Sitel	Concentrix	Konecta+Comdata
Revenue	US $8.4 billion	US $4.3 billion	US $6 billion	Approx. US $2 billion
FTEs	420,000+	160,000+	290,000+	130,000+
Languages	265+	50+	70+	30+
Countries served	170	40	40+	24

Considerations for buyers

Although organizations have the best intentions to use mergers and acquisitions to supplement their organic efforts, they generally underestimate the risks such as failure to achieve synergies, lack of due diligence, and security and integration challenges. Business leaders have often recognized people, culture, change management, and communication as the top reasons for integration failure. Lack of adequate change management policies can affect the organization’s governance and accountability structure, cause stress and uncertainty for employees, and decrease productivity for businesses, ultimately impacting service quality and timely delivery.

Future outlook for the CXM market

With Sitel’s acquisition of Sykes and Webhelp’s acquisition of OneLink BPO and Dynamicall in 2021, the trend of consolidation among CXM market players is gaining traction. Consolidation enables service providers to work with large clients across multiple delivery countries and end markets, a capability that is rising in importance for CX clients. It also enhances service offering portfolios and technology capabilities by serving as a one-stop-shop for buyers for all CXM needs.

This deal also represents an opportunity for buyers to reexamine their vendor portfolio since certain service providers might now be better positioned to support their clients across multiple locations and processes, representing an opportunity to optimize their portfolio with fewer providers to achieve operational and cost efficiencies.

To discuss the CXM market landscape, please reach out to David Rickard, Vice President, BPS, [email protected], Divya Baweja, Senior Analyst, BPS, [email protected], or contact us.

You can also learn how expanding and developing businesses are attracting technology-focused workers to help execute existing and evolving digital transformation, adopt new processes, and innovate. Join our webinar, How to Effectively Attract and Drive Productivity within the Tech Workforce.

How the Russia-Ukraine Crisis Can Impact Customer Experience Management Services and Alternative Locations to Consider for CXM Outsourcing | Blog

March 23, 2022

With Eastern Europe serving as a major hub for Customer Experience Management (CXM), the Russia-Ukraine crisis poses a serious threat to service delivery. Now is the time for enterprises with large presences in this region to diversify delivery locations and mitigate risks.

Read on for our expert analysis on the state of CXM outsourcing here, the potential disruptions, and alternative countries to consider for multilingual customer service and tech support to ensure continued CXM services.

Just as the world was looking to emerge from the global pandemic that caused a seismic shift in work and collaboration models, another highly disruptive crisis looms on the horizon. The recent geopolitical developments in Ukraine and Russia have caused the whole world to take notice, and with new sanctions kicking in every day, many are already preparing for adverse scenarios.

Given that this rift involves nuclear heavyweights in Russia and the NATO countries, the consequences could be far-reaching for the entire world. Consequently, these tense developments have created a lot of uncertainty and consternation for companies having a presence in the affected region.

Eastern Europe, which forms the immediate vicinity of Ukraine, is a major hub for delivering a plethora of customer experience management services for end-users both within and outside this region. Let’s take a look at the potential impacts to CXM outsourcing and alternative locations for CXM services.

Eastern European region CXM snapshot

As a strategic location for CXM services, eastern Europe offers strong multilingual capabilities, relatively inexpensive skilled talent, and cultural similarities and a minor time difference to western Europe. Leading global enterprises and Europe-focused players have a significant footprint in this region, putting them at risk in the current situation. The heatmap below illustrates the country-wise vulnerability index based on the number of delivery centers and corresponding CX agents present in each of them.

Potential CXM services disruptions and alternate solutions

Due to its skilled and relatively inexpensive IT talent pool, Eastern Europe is highly leveraged for its multilingual support for not only the regional languages such as Russian, Czech, Serbian, etc. but also for many of the major west European languages such as German, French, English, Spanish, and Italian. Poland and Romania also are sizeable talent sources for technical support.

Major cities in Ukraine such as Kyiv and Dnipro have been the most severely impacted by the armed conflict with Russia, and enterprises must accelerate Business Continuity Planning (BCP) measures to relocate affected CXM agents to safer parts of the country or outside of Ukraine to provide immediate relief.

If the conflict escalates beyond the borders of Ukraine in the coming weeks, major cities in Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria – which have the highest concentration of CXM delivery centers – could also be directly impacted.

We also envision a potential threat of cybersecurity breaches in Ukraine, inevitably causing collateral damage to its neighboring countries as well. While no one can foresee how the situation will unfold or its duration, enterprise clients must stay well informed and start devising backup scenarios and activate disaster recovery plans if needed. Although we believe the disruption will be temporary, a long-protracted war can’t be ruled out.

Alternative locations for CXM support services

Considering the uncertainty and volatility, let’s look at some viable alternate locations to help enterprises mitigate their emerging risks:

Multilingual customer support – Enterprises should consider new offshore and onshore locations to support major European languages for CXM outsourcing, as illustrated below:

Tech support – The best strategy for enterprises is keeping their complex tech-related support in-house through onshore locations. However, for simpler queries, alternative nearshore locations such as South Africa and Egypt offer similar advantages that Eastern European locations can provide at lower price points without any dip in the talent pool. Even offshore locations such as India and the Philippines are suitable alternatives to consider as long-term tech support outsourcing locations

Mitigate risks

The last two years have taught enterprises the glaring importance of risk mitigation as a strategic priority to ensure service continuity, and this year seems to be behaving no differently. Customer experience has established itself as a true differentiator for enterprises of all sizes and shapes in every industry. As such, ensuring that customer support services run unhindered is vital for enterprises to achieve their business outcomes.

Now, more than ever, diversification of service delivery locations will become increasingly relevant to counteract the rising instability that the current geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine as well as similar such events could bring in the future.

While we hope that this devastating humanitarian crisis comes to an end as soon as possible, enterprises that closely re-examine their service delivery footprints and proactively mitigate their risks will be better positioned to absorb any shockwaves that could potentially arise in the coming months.

With the continuing escalating events, it is important to stay informed on the latest developments in this region. Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] to discuss your situation and solutions.

Discover more about the impacts to the service delivery ecosystem in our LinkedIn Live event, How to Manage the Ukraine-Russia Impact on Service Delivery.

You can also keep up on the impact of service delivery from Ukraine and the CEE region in our resource center where you’ll find our consolidated coverage.

Two Success Factors For Platforms To Improve Customer And Employee Experience | Blog

February 24, 2022

As I previously blogged, back in pre-COVID-19 pandemic times, companies experimented with changing to digital operating models and building digital platforms to drive competitive advantages in managing operations, especially in improving the customer experience and employee experience. As economies began coming out of the pandemic shutdown, it became clear that companies that had progressed further in the platform world fared much better during the pandemic; and many used their platforms to gain disproportionate market share. That picture is even more dramatic in 2022.

Decoding the Organization DNA: How to Prevent Application Modernization Failure | Blog

January 19, 2022

Application modernization initiatives implemented in the wrong environment are doomed to fail. But these strategies can be transformed to success by starting with the right organizational makeup. Discover why having the right DNA of Dedicated product teams, Next-generation talent, and an A3 culture make all the difference.

With applications increasingly becoming integral to enterprise business strategy, mediocrity has no place when it comes to application modernization. Today’s applications are expected to be ultra-fast (millisecond response rate), scalable to millions of users, available globally, and capable of handling petabytes of data. Legacy and monolithic applications are frequently cited as the key roadblocks in achieving these high standards. Accordingly, the race is on to migrate these applications to containerized workloads in the cloud to improve agility and customer experience (CX).

However, many of these proposed transformations don’t succeed. Research shows 78% of digital transformation initiatives fail to meet all intended objectives. Monoliths are broken down into microservices, on-premise to cloud migration is executed, and DevOps methodologies are implemented, yet the full expected results are never achieved. What could these transformations be missing?

Just as the healthiest seed may also fail if planted on infertile soil, transformations fail if implemented in unsuitable environments. A successful application modernization strategy needs the right structure, the right environment to support that structure, and the right people to be part of that environment.

How to unlock value in applications

We have identified three focus areas for organizations seeking to unlock value from their applications – team structure, culture, and talent strategy. To achieve best-in-class results, application modernization strategy needs to be backed by a solid organization DNA that has the following elements:

Dedicated product teams – Persistent teams that remain intact over the product’s life cycle should replace traditional factory models with periodic talent rotation. By developing trust and expertise organically, these teams can then use their expertise to lay the right product roadmaps

Next-generation talent – A meticulous talent strategy focused on managing the entire talent lifecycle (upskilling, retention, acquisition) is vital to overcome the key challenges in scaling agile practices (such as lack of right talent and skills, cited by about 77% of executives)

A3 culture – High-performing generative cultures embrace novelty and avoid stagnation (Assertive); are open to introspection (Aware), and cut across silos by being highly cooperative (Associative)

Without these DNA components in place, application modernization initiatives run the risk of resulting in process change rather than outcomes change. Agile practices may sacrifice quality for speed, avoid documentation, and micromanage progress. The same practices in the right environment will deliver scalable, people-centric development with better business-IT alignment and systematic change management.

Application modernization transformation with the right DNA in place can make a world of difference. Innovation becomes faster. Employees can collaborate with increased synergy and achieve hyper-productivity. With the focus thoroughly shifted to outcomes, the end-customer realizes a significantly enhanced experience. Transformation without DNA backing is like driving a sports car in second gear where all the right technical components are in place, but they are not being utilized optimally.

Learn more about the many different aspects of ensuring transformation success in our recent report, Unlocking Business Value through DNA-backed Transformation. You could also learn more in our webinar, Resilient Digitization – Your Highway to Enterprise Transformation.

To share your thoughts on application modernization initiatives and discuss our research related to organizational DNA, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

How to Deliver Exceptional Customer Experiences | Blog

January 17, 2022

Customer experience is decidedly a top focus of company operations in 2022. As companies assess whether their digital-age investments achieve success, they increasingly look through the customer-experience lens. The goal in today’s digital platform world is to significantly improve customer, employee, and other stakeholder experiences. Platforms certainly have the capability of delivering exceptional customer experiences. So why are so many companies consistently providing disappointing customer experiences? We at Everest Group looked at the way companies apply the technologies and found the reason for the disappointing experiences.

Why HealthEdge’s Acquisition of Wellframe Looks Favorable for Member Experience | Blog

November 11, 2021

With member experience being critically important to healthcare enterprises, HealthEdge’s acquisition of Wellframe bodes positively for the merged enterprise and consumers. Read on to learn why we like this deal and the synergies between these two health services providers.

HealthEdge’s acquisition of Wellframe announced last month propels the provider of next-gen integrated solutions to health insurers into the high-growth digital member experience market. The deal will bring various benefits to HealthEdge, including Wellframe’s consumer-facing and user-friendly mobile application serving more than 33 million members that delivers personalized content and facilitates seamless connectivity to health plan staff.

The strategic intent behind the deal

In a recent (2020) survey by Everest Group, experience was identified as the most important strategic priority for enterprises. Member engagement has become an important area of investment for healthcare payers. Member experience as a theme is so important that health plans have created a new position, the Chief Experience Officer (CXO), to use their organizational muscle for prioritizing experience.

Healthcare payers realize that great member experience will not only help insurers in smoother acquisition and retention of clients but will also improve their financial performance by reducing the churn rate, improving health outcomes, and saving administrative costs. The industry is also witnessing a shift in the definition of “engagement” from being focused solely on sales and marketing to becoming a holistic approach across the three areas of sales and marketing, services management, and care management.

The acquisition of Wellframe propels HealthEdge into the large and fast-growing digital member engagement market. Coupled with its existing products, this creates a highly differentiated end-to-end solution for customers.

Unpacking the companies’ synergies

Wellframe’s Digital Health Management platform enables health plans to modernize member-facing services, including care management and advocacy. Wellframe’s Digital Care Management (DCM) solution serves as a digital front door for health plans seeking to engage high-risk members. Wellframe leverages real-time member-generated data and artificial intelligence to identify intervention opportunities across its solution suite.

Wellframe’s data sets of 33 million members combined with HealthEdge’s existing data sets will enable HealthEdge to focus on improving the quality of its insights, helping it not only in care management and member engagement but also in other areas where HealthEdge has traditionally offered services.

The Wellframe acquisition strengthens HealthEdge’s portfolio of SaaS solutions across payer workflow operations. The addition of Wellframe to its portfolio of care management solutions coupled with its existing GuidingCare^® solution will enable a full spectrum of services spanning member identification, prioritization, targeting, and member engagement. Additionally, seamless and real-time integration between HealthRules Payor^® and Wellframe will generate actionable insights that can lead to real-time member interventions and features that enhance a member’s health plan experience.

Things to watch out for

The acquisition of Wellframe is a strategic fit for HealthEdge to enter the high-growth member engagement market and compete with incumbents in this space, such as Salesforce and Pegasystems.

We are positive about this deal, particularly for what it means to the market and current market demand. However, it remains to be seen if HealthEdge also makes an entry in the other areas of member engagement, such as sales and marketing and services management, which would deliver even greater value.

Reach out to me at [email protected] with your thoughts on this acquisition or the member engagement market in general.

The Contact Center Upgraded: Everything You Need to Know About Contact Center as a Service (CCaas) | Blog

October 6, 2021

While organizations are certainly familiar with on-premise technologies in contact centers, today’s enhancement on the premise-based technology model is delivering an exceptional digital customer experience, innovation, flexibility, and lower cost. Meet the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) operated on the cloud. To learn more about this fast-growing omnichannel cloud contact center solution being adopted across all industries and geographies, read on.

Contact centers are becoming an area of strategic focus for organizations as they strive to deliver business impact through superior Customer Experience (CX). Traditionally, contact centers have run on technologies hosted on-premise with physical hardware such as servers, storage systems, security systems, dialers, and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) hosted in premises or in-house data centers. But that is changing.

Most organizations are now opting for cloud-based contact center solutions by migrating their existing premise-based applications to cloud and/or deploying cloud-native applications as they look to digitally transform their CX operations. In the past few years, the growing need to quickly deploy contact center technology and the increasing use of digital solutions such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, and analytics has paved the way for a flexible cloud contact center offering called Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS).

With COVID-19 pushing the boundaries of innovation and demand for digitally-infused customer experience increasing, CCaaS is poised to be at the forefront of the digital transformation of contact centers. In this blog, we will explore CCaaS, its impact on customer experience, and the financial benefits from leveraging these solutions.

Understanding CCaaS and what it brings to the table

CCaaS (also known as hosted contact center) is a contact center solution that allows organizations to utilize third-party contact center software hosted on cloud. It provides all the essential components that comprise a conventional contact center such as PBX, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), voice and non-voice channels, along with other digital solutions such as omnichannel platform, workforce management, automation, and quality management. It is usually offered as a subscription-based (per seat, per user, per month, per transaction) model, and the CCaaS vendor is responsible for regular maintenance and upgrades.

How CCaaS impacts customer experience?

With increasing customer expectations of service and support, improved contact center technology has been a key enabler of seamless service delivery. CCaaS brings together all the essential tools and technologies required by contact centers to deliver a superior customer experience. Here are three possible ways CCaaS can positively impact customer experience:

Less customer effort: Customers expect to connect with brands through multiple communication channels round the clock. Omnichannel solutions provided by CCaaS enable customers to easily connect across any channel at any point in time. Additionally, self-service solutions offered by CCaaS ensure customers’ queries can be solved without human intervention with low customer effort
Consistent quality of services: Enterprises and service providers are under greater pressure to deliver consistent customer experiences in each interaction. Intelligent routing and agent assist solutions in CCaaS ensure customers are connected to the appropriate agents equipped to handle customers’ issues. It enables organizations to resolve queries as quickly as possible, thus, keeping high customer satisfaction levels
Personalized experience: Customers these days expect brands to anticipate their needs and make personalized suggestions. CCaaS solutions enable organizations to collect historical data from multiple touchpoints, generate insights, and offer real-time tailor-made solutions to customers. Access to historical data also enables agents to understand the context of customer queries and solve them more easily

Does CCaaS adoption make financial sense?

A key benefit of CCaaS adoption is long-term cost savings. The business case depends on the size of the contact center, existing investments, the propensity to drive value through next-generational technologies, and the nature of the partnership with the CCaaS vendor to drive a successful transformation effort. Let us explore the potential cost savings that contact centers of different sizes can achieve practically:

Small contact centers with fewer than 300 FTEs can potentially realize 10-25% cost savings after CCaaS adoption. These smaller centers start driving cost benefits by leveraging digital solutions such as omnichannel platform, intelligent routing, workforce management solution, automation, AI/Machine Learning (ML)-based solutions, and advanced analytics along with CCaaS
Mid-sized contact centers with 300 to 1,500 FTEs can potentially realize 25-40% cost saving after CCaaS adoption. They can achieve economies of scale and drive value through the benefits provided by digital solutions. These contact centers can achieve additional costs savings by sharing IT assets across multiple locations, setting up analytics and automation hubs, and adopting unified operations
Large contact centers with more than 1500 FTEs can achieve 15-30% cost savings through levers available for small and mid-sized contact centers. However, significant existing investments in software and hardware, disjointed legacy solutions, and rigid operating models often hinder them from making greater savings

Our recent research shows that as companies accelerate their cloud adoption journeys and scale their contact center operations, leveraging an agile and holistic CCaaS solution will increase many-fold. With many companies moving towards flexible business models, the future of CCaaS looks promising.

Do you foresee adopting CCaaS as part of your cloud adoption journey? Read our report Demystifying Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS): Customer Experience Management (CXM) Market Report 2021 and share your thoughts by emailing [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

Outsourcing Your CXM Operations for the First Time – Here Are 10 Things to Consider | Blog

September 15, 2021

Over 70% of all Customer Experience Management (CXM) services are delivered by in-house teams, making this a huge potential market ripe for outsourcing. With our estimates pegging the global market at $325 to $350 billion a year, less than 30% ($89-$91 billion) is currently outsourced. Outsourcing can deliver numerous benefits for enterprises. But before jumping in, there are many planning, strategic, and tactical considerations to understand and address. To learn more, read on.

Driven by COVID-19, outsourcing of CXM grew last year after a long period of remaining stable at about a 25% share of the market as the pandemic disruption led many enterprises to seek additional support to continue servicing their customers when their teams were unavailable or to respond to increased demand.

Another contributing factor to the growth was increased government spending on COVID-19 related services such as tracking and tracing vaccination programs, which were predominantly outsourced operations. Our blog CXM Market’s Dream Run – What’s Driving It And Will It Last? explores this in more detail.

We predict the outsourcing trend will continue to grow as enterprises realize that outsourcing of CXM can deliver the same positive results as in-house teams – helping to remove cost from the business and simply allowing them to focus on their core business by having a third party manage the complexities of large customer-facing operations.

If you are a new or less experienced customer of these services, many factors must be considered to ensure the transition to an outsourced environment goes as smoothly as possible. Here are 10 critical elements to think about:

Business requirements	Understand what you need a service provider to deliver. Be clear on your business requirements and required Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at the outset of any discussion
Documented processes	Document processes that a service provider can follow and use to train agents If you don’t have your processes documented, be clear with service providers that this is the case and you may either need to build this in parallel to running the Request for Proposals (RFPs) or ask the service provider to build them before go-live
Sourcing strategy	Develop a strategy that specifies where you want support to be delivered from (onshore, nearshore, offshore or no preference) and determine if you are going to go with a sole supplier or multi-supplier strategy. This will be key before starting any procurement process as it will influence service provider selection
Technology strategy	Understand the digital transformation strategy for the business to ensure the service provider can support the changes required Develop a clear technology strategy for the “run” business – are you going to dictate what technology is used for activities such as CRM or are you happy to leverage a supplier’s offerings? This may be further complicated if you want to have multiple suppliers within your ecosystem as you need to be clear on where ownership of each technology will lie
Understand the supplier landscape	Understand the supplier landscape and the strengths and weaknesses of all the possible suppliers, including their footprint as well as their investments in technology and agent engagement. If you have unique or niche needs, are there suppliers in the market that can meet your requirements?
Understand the difference between procurement of goods versus services	Realize that the procurement of services is very different from the procurement of goods. While internal procurement teams are very effective at buying products, they may be less used to procuring services of this type and require additional support
Clear baseline of cost and performance	Understand the starting position in terms of cost and performance to baseline the value that is delivered through outsourcing as part of the business case
Business continuity planning	Factor in the use of service providers to existing business continuity plans for the current operation and plan for any potential impact or changes required
Stakeholder alignment	Align key business stakeholders with the use of outsourced service providers to ensure their support throughout the journey. Surprised stakeholders are much harder to placate than those that have been involved in the process from the start
Future expansion plans	Understand the expansion (or contraction) plans of the business to ensure any service provider selected can support future as well as current demand

While outsourcing can achieve many transformational business outcomes, know it is not a fit for every organization or in every context. Taking these right first steps and addressing the key issues above, will help set the foundation for a successful solution and prevent potential problems from transpiring at a later date.

To discuss embarking on outsourcing, please contact Sharang Sharma, Practice Director, [email protected]; David Rickard, Vice President, [email protected]; or Shirley Hung, Vice President: [email protected].

Learn how Everest Group helps CX managers deliver greater business value through CXM strategy optimization here.

CXM Market’s Dream Run – What’s Driving It and Will It Last? | Blog

July 19, 2021

During a global pandemic with a dire economic outlook, one surprising segment experienced its fastest growth in recent years – Customer Experience Management (CXM) services. Driven by increased demand for digital and other factors, this market seems to have long enough legs to extend into the coming years. But what’s behind this unexpected growth in CXM in an otherwise subdued economy, and will it last? For more on our analysis of this promising area, read on.

COVID-19 impact

As most major economies were shut down partially or almost completely in the first half of the year to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses across the globe were adversely impacted in 2020. And while some industries such as high-tech or Fast Growth Tech (FGT) fared comparatively better than others like travel and hospitality, overall, the economy looked grim.

With such a dire economic outlook, it was largely assumed that the same would hold for the Customer Experience Management (CXM) services market, given the segment’s dependence on overall economic health for its growth. Gauged by the slow first half of the year, the downcast business outlook, and the huge challenge facing CXM service providers to shift to a Work from Home (WFH) model to continue running their businesses, Everest Group projected the market would shrink by 4-5 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.

Market stunner

However, in a complete reversal of early trends, the CXM market managed to grow at one of the highest paces in recent years, recording 3-5 percent growth in 2020 to stand at around US$90 billion. And it doesn’t look like growth is coming to an end for this sector, as the numbers reported by some of the largest publicly-listed CXM service providers in 2021 look robust and point towards an optimistic future for this market.

This begs the question: Why hasn’t the CXM market been impacted as severely as was widely expected during the early phase of the pandemic spread? We see several underlying factors that have been at work. In our upcoming CXM State of the Market Report slated for release later this year, these factors will be explored in greater depth. Below we discuss some of the factors that contributed to the segment’s growth and raise questions that need to be addressed further.

The following factors are playing a role in CXM services growth:

Increasing demand for digital: It is no secret that businesses have come to terms with the importance of digital Customer Experience (CX) after the events of 2020. They understand the need for digital CX, not only to create superior customer experience but also to ensure continuity of services in adverse times when traditional methods no longer work. Additionally, customers are increasingly leveraging digital channels to communicate with brands, further fueling the pace of change. Enterprises are exhibiting a new wave of urgency to adopt digital technologies such as automation, analytics, self-service technologies, and digital channels to better prepare for the future and reduce dependence on a human workforce. This new demand is helping the digital segment of the CXM market to post an annual growth of over 40 percent
Exceptional performance by certain sectors of the market: While most traditional businesses were severely hit as businesses moved to an online model, those that were already strong in this space did well. Industries such as high-tech and FGT fared exceptionally, and their success also translated into more demand for CXM services from this industry
Demand due to COVID-19 response: Even mature markets such as North America and Western Europe saw good growth in 2020 driven by demand for government support in these regions. The massive push to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to vaccinate the masses fueled demand for CXM services. Programs such as contact tracing and vaccination support are expected to drive new growth for CXM service providers. However, these demand drivers are expected to wind down once the pandemic is controlled and the vaccination programs cover a large portion of the population

Here are some of the issues we see that need further exploration:

Is market consolidation hiding within the growth numbers? Given the challenges that 2020 posed around the changing business model, not everyone could thrive and survive in this market. The CXM services market has a very long tail with thousands, if not a magnitude more, of small service providers catering to enterprises globally. It is highly possible that a lot of these small (typically under 50 seats) providers were not prepared to handle the challenges thrown by the pandemic and saw their clients migrate to larger, more organized service providers. Given that a lot of these small players go untracked, a large part of this growth could well be just moving business from one player to another, which, in true essence, wouldn’t be actual growth. That said, it does not mean that the market did not see new growth at all. Based on our research, several providers have been successful in bringing new business to the table. While it may be difficult to determine full impact of the consolidation of smaller service providers on the overall market, our view is that the market is still experiencing net growth
Is CXM growth being driven by new demand or a shift from in-house to outsourcing? With major economies globally under pressure, a lot of new demand for CXM services seems unlikely, barring, of course, certain sectors that were highlighted above. A lot of the work that was previously being done internally through in-house centers could have moved to an outsourced model, given enterprises’ inability and inflexibility to adapt to new working models. Our research pegged the size of the total CXM services market (including in-house and outsourced) to be around US$350 billion at the end of 2019, with outsourcing accounting for ~25 percent of that spend. While a strong possibility exists that the overall CXM services spend declined in 2020 due to the challenging economic conditions, we believe the share of outsourcing is increasing, thus, resulting in net growth for the outsourced portion of the market

Positive outlook

Despite these factors, the long-term prospects for the CXM services market look favorable, especially with a heightened awareness around the need for superior CX to build differentiation in the market. This change will be hinged around digital CX, where most enterprises lack enough experience and require third-party support to execute the vision they have for their business. Along with green shoots of economic recovery emerging in several regions after a difficult year, service providers who possess CX capabilities have plenty of opportunities to look forward to.

Sharang Sharma, Practice Director: [email protected]

David Rickard, Vice President: [email protected]

Shirley Hung, Vice President: [email protected]

Sitel Group’s Acquisition of SYKES Makes a Big Statement – What Does It Mean for the CXM Industry? | Blog

June 28, 2021

With one of the largest acquisitions in the contact center outsourcing market in recent years, Sitel Group is poised to become a powerhouse with its acquisition of SYKES Enterprises, Inc. This union will likely set off greater investment in customer experience management services (CXM) and more industry consolidation. Read on to find out what this big deal will mean.

Giant scope gets attention

The contact center outsourcing market is huge, about 90 billion dollars in annual revenues, and the industry is seeing more attention and growth than ever. So, the announcement of the agreement of Sitel Group acquiring all of SYKES’ outstanding shares in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion is another in a growing list of investments in this space, albeit a large one.

Over the last two to three years, most acquisitions by large contact center providers have focused on bringing new capabilities and technologies to an existing footprint, whereas the Sitel Group / SYKES deal calls out gaining additional global presence as one of the main reasons for the acquisition. We have not seen something of this scale for a few years, probably not since the Concentrix acquisition of Convergys.

Ripple effects of the acquisition

This acquisition forms a $4 billion customer experience management services (CXM) organization with over 150,000 agents, making Sitel Group one of the three largest organizations in the industry alongside Teleperformance and Concentrix. In this blog, we’ll explore what this acquisition means for Sitel Group, its existing and potential customers, as well as the CXM industry as a whole.

Here are a few of the key impacts we expect:

The pace of change within Sitel Group: Existing customers of both companies should be mindful as to the speed and effectiveness of the integration and changes to the senior leadership team. Moving too quickly on an integration of this type can cause delivery capability issues, but moving too slowly can lead to service degradation as people are distracted by impending changes and, thereby, lose focus on immediate priorities. Potential clients will also want a clear view of available offerings, service delivery models, and innovation roadmaps
Sitel Group scaling up: Sitel Group’s acquisition of SYKES opens up a plethora of new delivery locations, including in Australia, EMEA, and Central America. However, we can expect to see a consolidation of sites and locations over time, especially where both have strong presences. The global footprint will also reduce as locations begin to provide service in the same languages. We also expect that Sitel Group’s considerable work on improving profitability in recent years will benefit SYKES’ business, whose current operating margins are on the lower side in the industry.

In terms of vertical expertise, Sitel Group and SYKES have complementary strengths, with Sitel Group bringing presence in the retail, insurance, and public sector spaces and SYKES bringing strength in the technology and healthcare industries.

Client volume drop: While Sitel Group and SYKES share complementary capabilities and mindsets, one natural overlap is that they have many of the same clients, making it probable that they will lose some client volume. Clients will not want to aggregate their contact center outsourcing into one place, they will naturally want to diversify
Delays in fully leveraging new capabilities: Many CXM service providers are developing digital CXM capabilities as the industry moves at pace away from traditional “people in seats” models and focuses on delivering better customer experiences through digital interactions to drive better business outcomes. SYKES has a strong focus on digital marketing and automation capabilities which benefits Sitel Group, which has leveraged partnerships in those areas

While Sitel Group’s acquisition of SYKES will bring additional and much-needed digital capabilities to the new combined business, a company the size of the new organization cannot deliver change and adjust to new offerings and skills overnight. It may take some time to fully deliver new digital capabilities at scale.

Increased investments in the contact center industry

As the contact center industry aims to better understand the customer and improve customer experience, we’re seeing many investments in the market.

Service providers across the board are investing in technologies and skillsets to become more digital and get ahead of the curve to offer better customer experiences. They are finding organizations more willing to spend money to improve customer service, an area where in the past, they treated simply as a cost base that needed to be reduced, but are now recognizing its potential strategic and topline business impact. Smaller service providers are taking advantage of their agility and are quickly adapting to a digital-first CXM business, and larger providers are having to work hard to keep pace with the rate of digital adoption.

Watch for more deals in the future

Expect to see more public and non-public deals happening. With the size of this market and everyone working towards digital transformation, a trend that has further accelerated due to vulnerabilities exposed by COVID-19, the contact center outsourcing industry is really ripe for investment.

These deals will result in a consolidation in the marketplace but with bigger market growth. Penetration of contact center outsourcing could increase from roughly 30 percent to upwards of 35 percent in the next few years – resulting in a faster rate of growth than we’ve seen in the past decade.

It will not only be due to big service providers getting even larger. Smaller service providers will need to rapidly articulate their differentiation to remain relevant in a crowded marketplace, such as in a process area or industry domain; otherwise, they run the risk of being in a race towards the bottom.

You can also attend our LinkedIn Live session, Who is Leading Customer Experience Management (CXM) Services in Europe?, to learn the results of our recently completed PEAK Matrix® assessment showcasing our latest CXM research in the EMEA region.

Announcing our inaugural conference: Everest Group Engage, The Pragmatic Edge: Designing Your Future. Learn more.

Category: CX / Customer Experience