Capgemini’s Steve Rudderham on why media has to be more proactive telling the real Latin America story.

 

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Rudderham: “How do we make nearshoring sustainable?”

“We have seen this explosion in nearshoring over the last few years,  now how do we take the next steps forward?”

That was one of the key points driven home by Steve Rudderham, vice president of client engagement at Capgemini and one our industry’s most strident supporters. (Steve was a top twenty finisher in last year’s Power 50 Ranking.) During the recent Nexus conference, Steve outlined several critical steps to maintain industry momentum – including managing emerging trends like “nearshore for nearshore”; the importance of industry collaboration and tackling new requirements to enable Latin America staffers to engage skillfully with global counterparts. Click here to roll video.

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By Steve Rudderham

Nearshoring is gaining more interest and higher levels of global respectability among companies  looking for long-term sustainable benefits, as they strive to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded global business environment.Offshoring is no longer the only option for companies seeking a highly skilled workforce, with a cost advantage.
Indeed, Gartner finds that interest in Latin America as an outsourcing destination has increased dramatically over the past years, making it the second most-popular region after South Asia. One of the biggest questions facing the Nearshoring community is: What can we do – together – to sustain the momentum?

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Steve Rudderham, VP, Client Engagement, Capgemini: “Problems culminate when customers and providers don’t spend enough time with each other”

Julia Santos, Director, Worldwide Strategic Outsourcing, Johnson & Johnson: “My way of communication and dealing with providers in India and LatAm is different. Because of the culture in Asia – it’s hard to just say no.”

Maurizio Velasquez, Commercial and BDVP Teledatos S.A., based in Colombia: “From a Latin perspective –we like to have the human approach.”

When people talk about “culture” in offshoring, what are they really getting at? It’s a question I’ve been thinking a lot about lately as I listen to people talk about culture as a fundamentally critical issue that has to be managed, watched over and in the most direct way – overcome.

Culture can, let’s face it, really screw up an offshoring deal. When I lived in Japan several years ago, I had my own taste of cultural “adjustment” learning quickly that if you’re out on the street and lost – people would rather give you bad directions than deliver the embarrassing news that the place you were trying to get to is far, far away.

Take that example, enlarge it and install it into a business environment, where both providers and customers may rely on increasingly sophisticated processes and modern technology tools to conduct business, but the sum result of that collaboration is intended to be something the client values and the provider understands thoroughly.

How Widespread are Cultural Breakdowns?

Research released recently by Boston-based Vantage Partners shows that culture is an issue that has to be reckoned with head on. The expanding gap between client expectation and provider service delivery – often referred to as “scope creep” – is at the heart of many deals that go bad.

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I met Steve Rudderham in Guatemala City a few months ago at the IAOP chapter meeting and was immediately struck by his vision for driving higher performing outsourcing relationships and how Nearshore providers have a huge opportunity to capture a bigger share of the global exported services marketplace. We recently checked in with Steve who just recently joined Capgemini as vice president of  client engagement for the Americas. In the interview we talk about critical issues facing the sector including Life Beyond Call Centers, Governments’ Role in Driving BPO activities, the Key Advantages of the Nearshore Customer Relationship, Safety and Risk issues, Building an Active Community of Nearshore Professionals and Capgemini’s Leadership Role in the Region.

Question: Steve, at the recent IAOP Central America meeting in Guatemala you called on Central America outsourcing service providers to think more about higher value services and that “there is more to life than call centers.” What risk do these providers face and where should they be headed?

I wanted to encourage local providers to look beyond the capabilities of Call Centers – that is what India, Europe and now China have done well. It becomes an iterative process where people see career growth in a company beyond answering the telephone, and stay with that provider, and in turn that allows the providers to demonstrate a stable workforce which then allows them to market more services, and hence more career growth for individuals and the community. Without these value added services, the outsourcing economy for a particular will quickly flatten out in terms of growth and development.
Capgemini Latin America vitals:

Total employees in Latin America  – Approximately 1,000

Locations: Guatemala, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo (San Salvador and Xela)

Services: F&A – O2C, R2R, P2P, Customer Care & Intelligence

Languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese
Question: In looking beyond call centers, what higher-value services can Nearshore services providers move toward and what human capital capabilities will they require?
There has been an increase in demand within the F&A Services sector for Nearshore alternatives – particularly in Accounts Payable and Accounts receivable processes. Once the clients are comfortable with these processes staying Nearshore, it opens up the opportunity for more complex work like General Accounting, General Ledger and FP&A work, so long as the country can support this demand with the resources. Supply Chain and procurement is another growing vertical that Latin America countries should look to take advantage.

Question: Tell us about your new role at Capgemini.

I have recently moved from Business Leader of Genpact’s Latin America operations to Capgemini as a Vice President for Client Engagement in the Americas. In this role, I will be leading the engagement for several key clients in the Americas and ensuring that service delivery is exceeding customer expectations.  I am looking forward to the challenge and excited about working within Capgemini as they expand their Americas footprint.

Question: What has the economic crisis done to impact the way Capgemini supports US clients seeking support in Nearshore markets?

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Caribbean CRM Central will travel west next week – stopping in to shake hands and blog live from the Central America chapter meeting of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, in Guatemala City.

Central America near shore BPO  is thriving and we’ll show you why. Speaking at the event will be the vice president of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, IAOP chairman Michael Corbett, as well as Chris Disher, president Chris Disher & Associates, Don Althoff, former CIO of British Petroleum, Estuardo Robles, principal advisor of Roaring Jaguar, Roger Conrado, president and CEO of GVC Partners, Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, Steve Rudderham, president of Genpact Latin America,  Mario …

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