Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 3)

By guest author Tony Scott

Andrew: Over the past decade we have seen globalization evolve, particularly within the call center and BPO marketplace. There was a period from 2002 and 2003 to around 2007 when I spent a lot of time focusing on the emerging markets: India, the Philippines, Peru, the rest of Latin America. All different, neutral, offshore destinations, if you will. I spent 2003 to 2005 answering one question. I made a career of [figuring out] why India versus the Philippines or vice versa.

Today, it is almost not even a relevant question anymore. Rather, the question is, why wouldn’t you have a little bit in each of these regions? [Doing so] is taking advantage of different geographic locations for their unique expertise. It’s not just globalization but the concept of rightshoring, where you have a global portfolio or a global mix. That is the solution today. It is not, “Which market am I going to do?” Rather, it is, “Which market am I going to, or which talent am I going after?” Once you have decided that, you go and find talent in the appropriate global location.

Tony: What do you consider to be your core competencies today?

Amit: Recently, we were ranked the top inbound contact center company in world by The Black Book of Outsourcing, a Datamonitor company. That very well categorizes what we do. We are an inbound contact center provider at the core of it, and what we do better than anybody else is help clients in a myriad of verticals to manage their inbound customer interactions. That is what we do exceptionally well on a global basis, whether it is in financial services, healthcare, retail, technology, telecom, consumer electronics, or publishing. In each of those we have a level of specialism.

Tony: What does your typical customer look like? And what is the range of organizations that you find to be your customers in terms of size?

Amit: Are you asking from a North American or a global perspective?

Tony: A global perspective, or you can do North America or global non-North America if you think there is a significant difference between North America and the rest of the world.

Amit: It is difficult to say what our typical customer looks like. We work with some of the biggest brands in the world and in the United States, for that matter. When you look at typical outsourcing engagements, the bulk of outsourcing probably comes from three or four vertical markets in the U.S. First, telecommunications or communications in general, which is wireless and wireline, media and entertainment, satellite, and so on. Financial services will be the second largest in that group, and then there is technology and finally manufacturing. Within those vertical markets we service many brands whose names you will recognize as number one or number two in their segments. On a global basis it is not dissimilar, except that in each region we are in, one vertical market might be more prominent than another. The typical size of an engagement is 100, 200, and up to even 3,000 agents for a particular client.

Tony: What is the smallest size you would provide for an engagement, and what is the largest? You said 3,000 at the top end; what about the bottom end?

Amit: The largest is over 3,000 people and the smallest is one person. I know it sounds strange, but one of the services we provide is what we call bureau services – specialized services wherein we offer receptionist service for very small companies. [The size] is typically smaller when you are aggregating it; smaller clients are going to have 50 to 60 agents assigned to them.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel
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