Hurtado will add 1,200 more agents by the end of the year.

By Patrick Haller

Successfully implementing bilingual operations in Colombia has remained the biggest challenge for Teleperformance since  acquiring  locally-grown Teledatos last year. However, the provider doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. With  more than 2,500 employees in Bogota, Teleperformance appears to have arrived at the right place at the right time by expanding both domestic and international business channels. To find out what’s next, we checked in with Juan Rodrigo Hurtado, President of Teleperformance Colombia, who formerly ran the Teledatos operation.

Teleperformance Colombia has a healthy respect for competitors such as Atento, Allus, Contact Center Americas who also serve the Colombian market, and Convergys and Sitel who attend global clients from Bogota. But they are determined to maintain their place as having the biggest global footprint. One way they do this is by training employees in the cultural dynamics of a given country, which isn’t always easy, as was the case when they had some difficulty imprinting the Spanish culture onto the Colombian call center operations.

Client Focused

Hurtado points out that one of their strong suits is the way they develop people. Additionally, they have established very strong relationships with their clients from a variety of industries like transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, pension funds, finance, manufacturing and retail. “One of Teleperformance’s main strengths is in business development,” says Hurtado, “this is an area where we are quite experienced and know a lot about the sectors we attend. We know the local market, and we have global sales force that is a dream team.” In Colombia, their top-tier client roster includes includes Avianca Airlines, Compania Nacional de Chocolates and the pension administrator Porvenir. They count Orange and Vodafone (with 3,500 employees dedicated to them) amongst their global customers.

The operator has added 1,000 full time employees over the last year to service customers from Spain, bringing the total to 2,500, and this market segment is seeing a great deal of growth. Teleperformance Colombia’s third target market is new and unexpected: they aim to have 1,200 dedicated employees to serve the English and Spanish speaking populations of the US by the end of 2011.

“Transforming Passion into Excellence” is not only a slogan, it is a corporate philosophy that extends from the executives, to the supervisors and the agents. It is the fuel that their call centers run on. Hurtado explained, “Basically that is the philosophy of the corporation; we start from the idea that passion is essential. The corporate philosophy is to achieve excellence and to count with people who are impassioned.”

Since Teleperformance acquired  Teledatos in 2010, Hurtado has been at the helm of the call center giant’s Colombian operations, and reported that they have had a very successful integration over the last eighteen months. Although the roles of “supervising and maintaining an organization that has an equilibrium between client satisfaction and employee satisfaction” are very similar in the two companies, one of the reasons Hurtado has found being head of Teleperformance Colombia to be a very satisfactory experience is “because it has allowed me to learn about a world class organization from a local perspective, which was not there before.”

On finding English-speaking talent: “It’s a new market so it is never exactly easy, but we have filtered the labor market and have found niches where we have found those resources” – Juan Rodrigo Hurtado

Meeting Standards

During the transition, Hurtado concentrated on qualitative and quantitative improvements by adopting the best methods on a global level, absorbing the best resources in Colombia and maximizing their potential. “The important thing was to adapt high level standards to achieve world class performance. By December 2011 we will be practicing, at 100%, the highest standards at a global level throughout the entire company.” Teleperformance Colombia also recruited staff from Mexico, Spain, the Philippines and Germany. The international mix is an important ingredient to Teleperformance’s success. “We are a multicultural company and that has made us a world class operator,” explained Hurtado.

On the qualitative side of the equation, the company has achieved great international knowledge, and on the quantitative side, they have seen growth in the Dominican Republic, Spain, and the North American market (Canada and the US). “Before we had offshore and domestic clients, now we have added Nearshore which is distinctly different,”  Hurtado said.

For contact centers serving Anglo populations, English language skills are a continual concern. As this is a new area for Teleperformance Colombia, they are ramping up slowly. “It’s a new market so it is never exactly easy, but we have filtered the labor market and have found niches where we have found those resources,” Hurtado said, “It is quite viable to find bilingual labor in Colombia. For now we feel very comfortable in being able to achieve 2012 expectations.” Currently they have 500 full time bi-lingual agents working on the platform and, as mentioned earlier, plan to have 1,200 by December 2011.

Retention levels have also been favorable in the Colombian facility, but in Spain the levels have been slightly lower because, says Hurtado, it is a sales operation and employees rotate more in that environment. Although the Nearshore is a developing market for them, they are seeing retention levels similar to the local Colombian market.

“We have noticed that the new generations need help in developing a feeling of belonging, and we need to make sure they have a commitment to social and environmental issues.” To accomplish this, Teleperformance created two programs; “Citizens of the World” where employees participate in global level courses and “Citizens of the Planet” which gives employees the chance to plant a tree every year. Together, these initiatives give employees a sense of belonging and connection to their community and environment. Additionally, they can participate in the annual dance, singing and artistic competitions which bring finalists from around the world together in one city, such as Sao Paolo, to meet, mingle and compete. “It is also very important that they have career goals so they know they can grow within the organization. We try to inculcate that Teleperformance Colombia is a place where you can work and grow; that is what generates retention.”

Contrary to the experience of other international call center operators, Teleperformance Colombia has not had any problems with finding space. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they have taken over the old Avianca Airlines building, which is situated on the site of a new development project on the way to El Dorado International Airport. As of September 2011, when the first stage of development ends, 2,200 workstations will be installed, with another 1,200 stations expected to be in place by 2012. Hurtado predicts that the facility will be the most advanced, state of the art contact center operation in Latin America.

Teleperformance has 268 contact centers in 50 countries, including South American operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and Central American locations in Costa Rica and El Salvador.

Just last week Teleperformance joined the parade of outsourcing players who see strong upside in the Colombian market. We followed up with Juan Rodrigo Hurtado, president of Teleperformance of Colombia, to talk about the strategic importance of having a presence in Colombia.

Why is Teleperformance making the move now to acquire Teledatos?

By acquiring Teledatos, the Teleperformance Group seeks to enlarge its Global footprint in the region. Teleperformance’s interest in Teledatos is based on the ample experience that the company has within the colombian market, the quality in its contact outsourcing processes, managerial human team’s professionalism and grade of specialization when it comes to working with highly satisfied clients, these aspects coincide with Teleperformance business philosophy. The group took into account as well the competitive advantages that Colombia offers for the Contact Center and BPO Industry

The acquisition strengthens the global footprint that the group has nowadays in the Iberico-LatAm world, where is a major business partner for clients in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.

Tell us about your own background at Teledatos.

I founded Teledatos in 1994, the leading company in the Colombian contact center market, based on an idea that arose from my graduation paper in the United States, with the specific purpose of providing customer service. The company started operations with four employees and basic call-center technology with 10,000 telephone contacts processed each month in Colombia.

Up until to today, I am the company’s CEO and I have been in charge of the whole consolidation process of the company, in Colombia and in international markets

Today, thanks to the strategic vision of our managerial team, we have over 6,000 employees and dispatches more than 12 million monthly contacts in 15 countries from around the world, in multiple languages.

Colombia is generating a lot of interest and excitement in the outsourcing industry. What is your view on what makes Colombia so attractive, and what differences does it offer compared to other LATAM destinations?

Colombia is rapidly growing into being one of the preferred destinations for Contact Center Outsourcing and other BPO Operations in Latin America, due primarily to its professionalism and the preparation of its people, communications infrastructure, operational costs competitiveness and its geographic location

Our Country has a large pool of qualified, service oriented personnel with specific BPO & IT domain expertise. It is an excellent near-shore option for the United States & Spain due to its time zone, frequent daily flights to major cities and similar cultures. It is also the second Spanish speaking country, (after Mexico) with a neutral accent that allows full understanding amongst other Latinamerican countries.

Colombia has flexible, reliable and qualified Workforce as well.

• 40% of Colombian population is between 15 and 39 years old

• More than 240,000 high school graduates per year , concentrated in major cities

• Around 30% start superior education ( technical schools or Universities)

• Around 5,000 English speaking people per year in labor market (growing every year due to Colombia Bilingüe program)

Colombia’s Call Center Industry is one of the biggest in Latinamerica; during the 2001-2008 period, it grew at a rate of 30%. In 2008 it generated income for US$422 million, employing 50.300 agents. Bogota represents 60% of the national industry and it is as well center to multinational and national companies.

Teledatos had earlier announced plans to expand into Peru and Guatemala – are those plans still going forward?

This is something that will be evaluated taking into consideration TELEPERFORMANCE strategy

You’ve talked earlier about the importance Teleperformance places on “value-added” services. Can you give an example?

Contact Center clients and users are looking for more than just services: interaction facilities, security, technologic innovations, agility, etc

Offering a value added service means integrating in a consistent manner people in charge of the service, processes that support it and the technology that complements it.

Together with Teleperformance Colombia we will be able to offer our clients integral solutions that make easier its customer Service and back office processes.

Teleperformance, a major player in the outsourced contact center market, has announced acquisition of Colombia-based Teledatos. (See our related story on Mexico’s BPO market where Teleperformance is a major player.)

Teledatos, with expected 2009 revenues of approximately US $75 million, manages its operations in Bogota and Medellin utilizing more than 6,000 customer representatives. Teledatos serves major clients in various industry sectors, including telecommunicAdd New Post ‹ Nearshore Americas | Independent reporting on outsourcing in the Americas — WordPressations, transportation, tourism, utilities, retail, health and social protection.

The company, managed by Chief Executive Officer Mr. Juan Rodrigo Hurtado – a civil engineer with certificates in administration and finance from Harvard University – serves the local Colombian market as well as the wider Hispanic world.

Daniel Julien and Jacques Berrebi, the two Teleperformance global leaders, commented:
“We are delighted and proud to welcome the Teledatos team into the Teleperformance family.
Throughout our discovery process, we consistently found outstanding values, culture and expertise in Teledatos. Teledatos’ focus on quality, its natural empathy and the general cultural fit with Teleperformance are obvious. Now we plan to develop the potential of this outstanding team, led by its very talented top manager, first in Colombia and then beyond Colombia’s borders, with the support of our Spanish / South American unit led by Mr. Alejandro Perez.
The addition of the new “Teleperformance Colombia” solution to our global integrated network strengthens our already solid position in the Iberico-LatAm world, where our group is a major business partner for clients in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.”

Juan Rodrigo Hurtado, CEO of Teledatos, added:
“Our goal was to partner with a global leader that we like and recognize as a market trendsetter.
With the Teleperformance Senior Executives, and in the best possible interest of our clients, employees and partners, we have accomplished this goal. We all share the same philosophy about customer service, quality process, and reliable IT solutions. Together, we are committed to delivering an outstanding customer experience and to continue to lead the market with added value solutions. It’s a great day for all of us, we are now the Colombian arm of the # 1 worldwide industry leader”.

Teleperformance was represented by Leigh Ryan and Daniel Bergstein, with their team of legal advisors from Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, and Sergio Michelsen Jaramillo and Jose Andres Romero, with their team of legal advisors from Brigard & Urrutia. The Teledatos sellers were represented by Martin Acero and his team of legal advisors from Prieto & Carrizosa S.A.

ABOUT TELEPERFORMANCE
Teleperformance (NYSE Euronext Paris: FR 0000051807), the world’s leading provider of outsourced CRM and contact center services, has been serving companies around the world rolling out customer acquisition, customer care, technical support and debt collection programs on their behalf. In 2008, the Teleperformance Group achieved €1.784 billion revenues (US$2.6 billion – average exchange rate at December 31, 2008: €1 = US$1.46).
The Group operates about 82,000 computerized workstations, with more than 100,000 employees (Full-Time
Equivalents) across 267 contact centers in 48 countries and conducts programs in more than 66 different languages and dialects on behalf of major international companies operating in various industries.

ABOUT TELEDATOS
Teledatos is one of the Latin American leading providers of contact center services; it has been attending customers of
different industries in the Colombian market and offshore Colombia especially in Spain. Teledatos supports its customers as a strategic provider in different areas such as customer care, sales, collections, back office, marketing, with excellent human resources and a reliable technology platform. In 2009 Teledatos expects revenues of US $75MM. Teledatos operates from Bogota and Medellin, with 6,027 workstations and 6,484 employees; it is recognized in the industry for its excellent quality service, customer management and especially for the quality of its employees.

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.

“The top four consequences of scope challenges — service complaints from end users; time wasted on conflict, revisiting decisions; scope overruns; and missed deadlines — are not merely results of the mishandled scope discussions that plague any outsourcing deal. They can be directly traced to the extent to which commitments, tolerance for ambiguity, directness of communication, and acceptance of risk pose challenges. A cultural reticence to say “no” to out-of-scope requests, for example, can easily lead to missed deadlines. When these cultural challenges are not adequately addressed, the impact of service complaints, wasted time, scope overruns, and missed deadlines is significantly higher than in onshore deals,” states Vantage’s report on Managing Scope in Offshoring Relationships.

A few months ago, Chris Disher, Central America chapter president of the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) hosted and moderated a web seminar that tackled this very same issue, and the discussion was quite illuminating.

The guest speakers, including Julia Santos, Steve Rudderham, Maurizio Velasquez (quoted above) and Danny Ertle of Vantage Research (also Governance Chair at IAOP), each shared their own perceptions of what culture means to making offshoring work. Here are more of their thoughts:

• Rudderham: “Every customer that I have had come down to our site in Guatemala has said, “This is not what I expected. It’s a lot more modern.”

• Disher: “We see some gaps we should pay attention to in improving the quality and service delivery between customers and providers”

• Santos: “My experience in LatAm is it is a very collective culture where as opposed to the US, we are individualistic. In Brazil, they put a lot of importance in workplace socialization practices, they even do business on coffee breaks.  They are much stronger about relationships – their culture is more energetic and excitable. To get the most out of the relationships I have to get into that mind-frame.”

• Velasquez: “In LatAm we are more comfortable confronting conflict that in India.”

• Disher: “I think the time zone plays huge [between LatAm and India], especially for US customers to do same day operations. There is a preference in India for some level of informality – but because of reliance on telephone or video conference, those things seem to create more formality.”

• Santos: “In Asia, if they say to you  ‘I can’t do this’ they mean it. If they say ‘yes’ in LatAm – you need to look at that twice. They tend to be more optimistic. For Asia they tend to be more pessimistic.”

• Rudderham: “Culture difference is minimized with strong governance.”

• Ertle: “The reality is as teams become more globalized – we’ll all have to deal with this. Maybe it will get easier as we get to know each other.”

• Santos: “It’s truly a point of view. In order to overcome the cultural challenge you really need to embed yourself in that culture. It truly is a two way street.”

Final takeaway:

It takes time to understand a culture just as it takes time to develop sufficient trust in another human being, no less a business partner. Investing in offshoring is often looked at as cost-driven exercise. Approaching offshore deals through that lens will undoubtedly lead to trouble when the core of the relationship is in fact based more on backgrounds, communication styles, customs and ways of doing business. A few flights on Taca Airways, Continental or Spirit to your prospective provider in the Americas will provide important insurance against breakdowns later on. That’s not a guarantee, but it’s truly the right place to start. What do you think?

By Karina E. Cuevas

Bogota employs over 30,000 people in the contact center industry

Plenty of heads shook with dismay across Latin America, and particularly in Colombia, when Bogota was labeled as the riskiest outsourcing destination in the world for 2009, according to publishers of the Black Book on Outsourcing.

Lots of rankings come out annually about outsourcing providers, specialty areas, regions and cities – but this particular announcement seemed to be so at odds with reality that it triggered a slew of condemnations across the Internet and raised serious questions about the methods used by authors Scott Wilson and Doug Brown. (For further opinion, see Nearshore Americas’ reaction here.)

Modern City on the Rise

A city that generates over $250 million annually in the call center/outsourcing industry can hardly be called a dangerous investment option.  “It [Bogota] has a big and modern economy with over 500,000 college students, a major international airport and the advantage of moving more cargo in Latin America [than any other country],” says Vladimir Ramirez, Managing Director of International Development Group, a management consulting firm with operations in Colombia, New York and Chicago.  “It was number one in foreign investments last year (in LATAM) making it the first port of entry in Latin America and having both Colombian and international Spanish call centers located in Bogota.”

With facts like these, it’s hard to believe the negative comments on Bogota, but Black Book of Outsourcing doesn’t stop there. It places Bogota under the radar as a dirty and polluted city with an immature legal system.  When contact about the report, authors Scott Wilson and Doug Brown did not respond to questions.

“Many people know very little about Latin America and nothing about Colombia, so I don’t know if those people have ever been here or where they get their data,” says Ramirez. “Colombia, within its political context, has never had a coup d’état, it has only entered in a recession once at the end of the last century and from a public order point of view it is no more corrupt than India, Indonesia and other countries in Latin America.”

Teleaccion: Training Plays a Key Role

Colombia counts on the expertise of a consulting and training company, unique to Latin America, called Teleaccion.

• It’s a 21-employee institution specialized in improving technology and BPO management within the country and nine other nations around Latin America.
  
• It has focused on three primary countries of growth for the call center market, including Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
• “We have trained around 23,000 people within 157 contact centers in Latin America,” says Patricia Alzate, General Manager of Teleaccion. “We work for Latin American reality, not for American or European cultures. Our method is a practical and simple one that has showed great results.”

According to Ramirez, Colombia is a market waiting to be discovered by the international community.  Currently there are around 120,000 employees within the call center industry.  The largest call centers are located in Bogota which employs around 30,000 people. The country, with seven distinct regions, offers over 12 cities in which to base a company.  In five years, the call center/outsourcing industry is expected to generate $2.5 billion in revenue for the country.

Colombia has over 20 contact centers around the country all with different levels of success. Teledatos, located in Bogota, ranked number two in 2008 accounting for 13 percent of the market revenue.  With 15 years of history, Teledatos has become a leader in domestic services and has an open door policy for international business. They focus on the health care sector, air and land transportation with their services delivered mainly in Spanish, but also in Portuguese, English and Papiamento (the official language spoken in the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao).  It has a consistent portfolio of loyal clients, one that has maintained a 14 year long business relationship and others that see their quality in customer service and have stayed for over four years and counting.

Over 55 Clients Served

“Teledatos is born in Medellin and then in Bogota, being it the capital it went on to be part of the growth strategy,” says Mauricio Velasquez, Commercial and New Business Vice President. “We employ around 6,200 people and service 55 companies from Europe, the United States and Latin America.”

Profile: Mauricio Velásquez M.

Commercial and New Business Vice President of Teledatos

Systems Engineer of EAFIT, Specialized studies in Management in Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and in Direct Development in INALDE.

He is a professional and numbered member of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals – IAOP, USA.

He was Manager of Business Development with an emphasis on Outsourcing for HP in their region MCA (Multicounty Area), Director of Sales for business lines of Telecommunications for Unisys in Puerto Rico, Project Leader of IBM, among other related positions within outsourcing in technology.

Since 2009, he is the Commercial and New Business Vice President of Teledatos S.A. company that thanks to the strategic vision of its management team, it has leader the transformation of the Contact Centers in Colombia, transforming them in to one of the most strategic sectors of development in the country.

In the national market they place as number one when it comes to number of employees and annual capital.“Latin American culture is very easy and it’s not the same as in Pacific Asia because they have a barrier which is the English language,” says Vasquez. In Latin America we speak English and we weren’t born with it as a main language, so for companies like Samsung or LG that cater to the Hispanic population it would be easy for us to take care of their needs in our language, but for Indians to learn Spanish would be a very difficult process.”

The Colombian government is taking English language training seriously and is developing incentives to bring more qualified workers into call centers and outsourcing.

Government Steps Up its Role

“For this sector and with the help of the Department of Economic Development and the local government of Bogota we created a program called Talk to the World that is currently training 575 future employees in English and we expect to train 10,000 more in the next four years,” says Monica Ramirez Hartmann, Investment Officer of Invest in Bogota, a nonprofit investment promotion agency created by the Alcaldia Mayor de Bogota and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce.

According to Hartmann, Invest in Bogota together with other government institutions such as Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) is training and helping employ as many people as they can within the contact center industry regardless of their career choice. They want to attract as many foreign investors as possible by offering them the best customer service at a low price and therefore making Bogota grow from its 60 percent annual revenue within the industry.

“Colombia is a country that for 20 years has had a bad image, but today’s situation is not the same, it’s a problem on how you perceive things and reality,” says Ramirez Hartmann. “This is the least expensive country in Latin America when it comes to payroll, infrastructure and telecommunications and it’s all very effective, they don’t offer any problems to companies. We are also in a great geographic position compared to India and the Philippines, since it’s a city where all the major airlines arrive making it therefore a convenient destination.”

Karina E. Cuevas is a contributing writer to Caribbean CRM Central. She is based in the Dominican Republic and can be reached at: kecuevas@gmail.com