Spotlight on Rightshoring

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Vol. 2 November 2009

Aegis Speak
Dear Customer, It feels great to interact with you in this second issue of Insight. At the outset, let me thank you for the encouraging response to the inaugural issue. This time around, we have chosen Rightshoring as the theme. In the Think Tank section, H. Karthik, Research Director, Everest Research Institute (part of the leading global outsourcing advisory firm, Everest Group) talks about how offshoring location decisions hinge on an organizations business objectives. In fact, this is the motivation behind Aegis global delivery model we will be where the customer wants us to be and where they will derive maximum value. Our ever increasing global footprint gives us the flexibility to draw from a global talent pool at will and an opportunity to share best practices across regions. In this issue of Insight, Case in Point illustrates how Aegis RightShoring solutions gave Spirit Airlines an edge through enhanced service delivery while reducing the total cost of operations.

Experience Roadmap
Our strategy of linking value to experience forms an integral part of service delivery to our customers. As your contact center, Aegis CRM delivers process excellence, while managing your customer experience. This management of experience is delivered through integrated Customer Life Cycle Management, handling thousands of moments of truth (interaction with your customers) through consistency in delivery, focus on quality and rightshoring, thereby providing you with the optimum balance of experience and cost of delivery.

Manage

Enable Business Process Technology Services Outsourcing Aegis Tech Aegis CRM Aegis Collect YOU Aegis Health Aegis Rapid Text Extend Aegis Engineering E-GLOSS Aegis Aspire Aegis Spend Management

Aegis Tech enables experience by providing future-proof technology solutions in the areas of unified communications, network infrastructure, business applications and information security. The solutions portfolio includes consulting and design, implementation and integration, support and maintenance and audit and re-engineering. Aegis Spend Management extends experience by bringing together the skills, services, knowledge and technology required to transform procurement from a cost center to a profit-generating competitive advantage. Solutions include Source-to-Contract Processes, Procure-to-Pay Processes and Invoice Automation Services. As always, we bring the latest from the industrys analysts in the Buzz Factor section. We hope you enjoy reading this issue and we look forward to exciting times together. Regards

Sandip Sen President (Americas) Global Chief Marketing & Sales Officer

Buzz Factor
Industry Buzz
APAC BPO Market Growing : IDC
According to the research firm IDC, the APAC BPO market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.2% from USD 17 billion in 2008 to USD 29 billion in 2013 (based on the 2009-2013 market forecasts). This will be led by platform BPO services. BPO business models have moved beyond full-time equivalent (FTE) pricing and offering pure cost arbitrage advantage, to providing potentially strategic transformational services. The market is witnessing more intimate, partnership-type engagements. IDC identifies standardization, scalability, economies of scale and pay-as-you-use functionalities as the value-adds that are anticipated.
Source: MIS Asia

Aegis Buzz
Aegis 14th successful acquisition - Aegis enters the Sri Lankan market with the acquisition of Ismart-Timex
Aegis recently acquired an 80% stake in Ismart Timex, one of the largest BPO service providers in Sri Lanka. This acquisition will reinforce Aegis leadership position as a Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) company by delivering complete end to end CLM solutions and is is expected to boost Aegis growth curve in voice and back office services, especially F&A, by leveraging Sri Lankas rich talent pool. By taking over the operations of Ismart Timex, Aegis can now offer a larger geographic footprint to clients beyond India alone in the Philippines, United States, Costa Rica, Kenya, South Africa and Australia.

Awards

Outsourcing to Multiple Destinations

According to industry experts, multinationals are actively looking beyond India to offshore to other countries including China, Brazil, and Vietnam. Many companies also aim to tap the different expertise available in different regions by outsourcing to multiple countries.
Source: MIS Asia

Ranked No. 6 in DataQuests listing of the Top 20 BPO companies in India for 2008-09.

Offshoring to Africa
The global sourcing location landscape is evolving rapidly, with over 150 cities currently being potential location options for companies. Although African cities are relatively recent entrants to this list, the region has witnessed a significant uptake in global sourcing activity over the last three years. Among the African destinations, cities in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Mauritius lead the pack.
Source : Everest

Ranked No. 8 among the top 15 BPO exporters for 2008-09. Nasscom ranked BPO companies as per their India-based delivery capabilities, revenue growth rate in 2008-09 and outlook for 2009-10.

Ranked 26 among IAOPs top 100 global outsourcers

Awarded the M&A deal of the Year at the Asia Pacific M&A Atlas awards 2009 ($200 Million dollar category)

Think Tank
Location Decisions for Outsourcers
H. Karthik is a Research Director with Everest Group, a leading global sourcing advisory and research firm. Karthik focuses on Global Sourcing and manages client projects and syndicated research across multiple areas including captive and location optimization. Karthiks strength in research stems from an in-depth understanding of the issues involved in offshoring across multiple industries and from prior experience in banking and consulting. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, India) and a Bachelor of Technology, Electrical Engineering, from Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai, India). Karthik has led multiple projects aiding Fortune 2000 companies in making location decisions. Also, he has led Everests engagements with many countries, including South Africa and Mauritius. Here are excerpts of the Insight editorial teams conversation with Karthik:

On the role played by the choice of outsourcing location

The choice of location(s) is an integral part of any outsourcing decision and some factors that are considered include the cost of operations, quality of services and risks associated with operating in that location. In addition, today, buyers are consciously evolving a location de-risking strategy. In the case of voice-based services, the quality of service becomes especially important. For example, when a leading utilities company decided to outsource their customer query support activities, they followed an interesting approach they retained premium customer query handling in-house and outsourced query support for mid-range customers to a near shore location where accent match and cultural affinity would be high. For handling queries from other customers, they opted for an offshore location which offered better cost advantages. Thus, the location decision became a by-product of the customer management strategy. Another factor that could impact the location decision is the type of call. A sensitive interaction like a call to notify loss, to an insurance company needs to be handled with care and requires highly skilled people. Language capability is also a driver in choosing a location.

On trends that Everest sees with regard to location decisions

We see that outsourcing requirements are becoming more specific, and as a result the choice of location becomes an important aspect. Another pattern that is emerging is the India + (India and other destinations) model. Companies are building global delivery networks leveraging multiple locations. An important trend is that outsourcing decisions are increasingly being taken with a long term view in mind.

Take on promising locations

Everest tracks over 150 outsourcing destinations across the world on an on-going basis. We believe that each of these locations has a unique role to play in companies global delivery networks. We do not therefore provide generic rankings for locations. Having said that, we must acknowledge that there are multiple emerging offshore locations, in different regions. Africa is attracting interest and the expected improvements in telecom infrastructure (e.g., SEACOM) should position the region favourably. Within Africa itself there are countries that offer different advantages. In Eastern Europe, Romania is better positioned to serve French language work while Czech Republic has strengths in German language skills. Within South America, Argentina is less expensive and offers good Spanish skills; however it perceived to be more risky than Brazil which offers Portuguese skills at higher cost. So, the location decision needs to be looked at in close conjunction with overall outsourcing objectives, and hence labelling certain countries or destinations as more promising is not appropriate.

On how a company should balance cost and risk objectives while choosing a location
This is an interesting trade-off at two levels, and usually varies by company. Also, it ties back to the objectives and priorities of the company. First, while choosing a country to work out of, the cost advantages would be weighed against the perceived macro risks of operations- political stability, government support and infrastructure robustness. Within a country, there could be cities offering varying cost/risk profiles. In India today, many third party service providers have expanded into Tier 2 locations based on their experience in setting up and operating centers and their capability to hire and train lower cost resources. Captives however have largely remained in the metros.

Implications for service providers

As evident, it is advantageous for service providers to expand their operations to cover a global footprint. This helps them offer a broader range of services (e.g., languages) to customers, and thus helps customers gain more value. Again, with customers being more inclined to distribute work globally, they may just prefer to work with service providers who have a wider delivery network.
H. Karthik can be contacted on info@aegisglobal.com

Case in Point
Enhanced service delivery Rightshoring for Spirit Airlines
THE CLIENT
As a leading ultra-low cost carrier in the United States, Spirit Airlines has come a long way from its beginnings as a charter tour operator. Spirits low cost model is driven by numerous efficiencies, cost-saving advanced technologies and dedicated staff, thereby enabling millions of customers to travel in comfort at low prices. With over 2,300 employees and an ever growing route network, Spirit is the one of the fastest growing airlines in America. enabled Spirit to be fully prepared to deal with the travel rush during the peak summer season. With service levels back under control, and significant reduction in hold times, customer satisfaction scores and sales conversion rates showed a dramatic improvement of 25% over previous levels! Pleased with its improved outputs and with Aegiss performance, Spirit Airlines expanded its partnership with Aegis to meet the ever-increasing demand for the Spanish language sales and travel support services, by transitioning its Spanish support needs from another service provider to Aegis operations in Costa Rica. Through its BPO facilities in Costa Rica, and a highly professional workforce, Aegis delivered exceptional services in Spanish. By using Aegiss Anytime Any Place Any Process Rightshoring technology platform, Spirit benefited from a single interface, common queues, multiple channels, integrated account management, common SLAs and integrated reporting systems. Aegis further enabled inbound and outbound voice, IVR, email, web chats and back office functions for Spirit Airlines.

CUSTOMER CHALLENGES
With an exponential growth ever since its launch, Spirit began feeling the strain of its increasing customer service requirements. By 2008, Spirits existing contact center solution was unable to scale up; there were insufficient qualified resources to handle the flood of sales and customer service calls. Service levels were dropping steadily and hold times were increasing. Furthermore, customer satisfaction scores and sales conversions were negatively impacted. Faced with an impending summer rush, Spirit needed a strategic partner with deep travel industry expertise, a capability to scale quickly, and an ability to deliver high quality, cost-effective customer service in multiple languages.

RESULTS
Aegis met and exceeded all the customer service metrics, quality and compliance goals set by Spirit, despite the challenge of crunched deadlines. Spirit Airlines derived many benefits as a result of this partnership: High quality and cost-effective customer service in both English and Spanish resulting in improved customer satisfaction Increased sales conversions and revenue cycle management Successful implementation of Spirits partner/transfer programs Significant cost savings through reduced call center technology and development costs Development and implementation of customized Speech-enabled FLIFO IVR

AEGIS SOLUTION
With an established reputation, proven track record and vast experience in supporting some of the worlds largest travel and hospitality companies, Aegis was an ideal partner for Spirit. Aegis challenge was to provide comprehensive customer care, reservation sales and services, and flight information support under a crunched timeline. After a thorough study of Spirits operations, the Aegis team recommended a customer service approach fine-tuned to the nuances and seasonality of the travel industry, including a performance-based revenue model. By leveraging its vast recruitment network and its sizeable employee base, Aegis was able to successfully scale up the program by providing a trained team of over 300 people in just two months. This prompt effort

Spirit Airlines believes in liberating customers from being forced into paying for services they do not desire or use we focus on services that matter and we offer them at the best value. With Aegis, we found the ideal partner in terms of quality and cost for world-class customer support in Spanish and English.

- Brian Davis

Sr. Director - Customer Service

Global Footprint

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
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