Can Latin American Providers Meet the Demand?
February 2nd, 2012
By Bill Huber, Partner, ISG, and Kristen Elvinger, Research Associate
Concerns exist over the capacity of Latin American service providers to absorb rapid growth. Several global providers currently have a presence in Latin America, and tax and other trade incentives will help attract more outsourcers to the region. And, many Latin American countries are positioned to further develop emerging areas of specialization. Indeed, lessons learned from India, China, and some Eastern European countries suggest that specialization and quality-focused differentiation will be the keys to success, especially for countries with small populations.
Want Better Customer Service? Take the Pulse of Your Company
February 1st, 2012
By Rosanne D’Ausilio
There is what we call a moment of truth when a customer makes a decision about you, your company, maybe even all companies in your industry, based on their interaction with anyone from the front lines up to and including your CEO. In those first three sentences, a customer determines whether their interaction will be a good experience, a bad experience, or a waste of their time.
When talking about customer service, customer satisfaction, and customer retention, you often hear that the best way to determine how you’re doing is to ask your customer. And that’s absolutely true. However, if you really want to know how your company is doing, ask your internal customer.
Is Mexico Finally Waking Up to This Key Concept?
January 30th, 2012
By William Gourg
The Greeks, 2,500 years ago, were onto something. Creating a concept such as synergy might have been one of their greatest inventions. Although the word has sometimes been overused and abused, synergy surrounds us nowadays. Synergies underlie mergers and takeovers, coalition governments, and civil society movements. More and more often we are starting to see public-private partnerships that promise the benefits of mutual cooperation.
Investment Data Reveals State of Interest in Latin America Locations
January 25th, 2012By Reshaad Durgahee
Lima, Peru: Surprisingly emerging.
In the period 2003 through 2010, Europe and Asia were the largest recipient regions of foreign investment projects in shared services and BPO activities, accounting for 46% and 29% respectively. Meanwhile, interest in Latin America has clearly been growing. The number of shared services and BPO foreign investment projects in Latin America rose year on year until 2010, when the total number of projects entering the region decreased by 15%.
India-Centric Management Consulting Does Not Meet Goals
January 20th, 2012By Stephanie Moore
When Forrester published its first Indian vendor consulting Wave in 2005, Indian vendors were just starting their journey into management consulting. At the time, none of these vendors could compete with traditional management consultants – such as Accenture and Deloitte – from a scale, brand, or experience perspective. Given the rapid growth that these vendors achieved in the pure IT services space, however, it seemed only a matter of time before they would challenge vendors such as Accenture in the IT management consulting arena. Six years have gone by and these ambitious Indian IT service providers are still trailing the traditional management consultants.
US Congressional Bill Would Penalize Offshoring
January 17th, 2012
By Peter Ryan
The US Congressional initiative House Resolution 3596 (HR 3596) is the most recent effort on the part of certain US legislators to inhibit the offshore outsourcing of contact center services. However, no matter how sincere the spirit of this and other previously proposed and similarly worded resolutions, Ovum believes such a law would badly hurt outsourcers and ultimately impact the US consumer negatively. Therefore, vendors need to come out swinging against such initiatives.
Insourcing Jobs for Americans: Can It Work?
January 11th, 2012
"Insourcing is a smart strategy right now..."
By Clayton Browne
President Obama hosted a White House forum today entitled “Insourcing American Jobs.” Executives from several companies spoke at the event, all representatives of businesses that have recently made major investments in the U.S. resulting in thousands of new jobs – many of them IT jobs.
MexiCANs: The New Breed Needed for a New Era
January 10th, 2012
By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
After being out of Mexico for almost eight years, I returned to my native Guadalajara in November 2010, driven by the desire for closer ties between my daughter and her cousins, grandparents, uncles, and aunts.
My friends in San Diego asked over and over why I was leaving San Diego for Mexico. “It is dangerous,” they said.
The Five Ws of World-Class Customer Service Training
January 6th, 2012By Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.
The interaction anyone has at any level with your employees, including you, gives a customer an opportunity to make a judgment about you, your company, and all companies like yours. I’m not just talking about call centers here. All technical support or help desk personnel are included as well. As a matter of fact, anyone who is in the customer service business – period.
The preamble to the United States Constitution begins, ‘We, the people…” I feel strongly that we, the people, are what make the difference in life, both personally and professionally. But how does that relate to customer service?
Creating Effective SLAs: Pay Attention to Productivity and Data Accuracy
December 21st, 2011
By Marc Tanowitz
As outsourcing buyers use service levels to measure the performance of a provider, service level agreements (SLAs) are one of the buyer’s fundamental vendor-performance management activities. An SLA’s agreed-upon quantitative provider requirements establish the baseline performance levels and define the monetary credits or other remedies associated with a provider’s failure to meet the standards. The principal role of an SLA is to align buyer and provider objectives.
