Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Home-Based Outsourcing Vendor,

Transcription

1 Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Home-Based Outsourcing Vendor, Publication Date: 25 Sep 2014 Peter Ryan Product code: IT

2 Summary Catalyst There has been significant interest in alternative contact center outsourcing delivery models among enterprises over the past decade. The work-at-home agent option, in which front-office BPO is delivered by team members that work out of their residences, has grown in popularity due to its ability to provide high-quality domestic customer service at price points somewhat lower than could be achieved in bricks-and-mortar facilities. However, with confusion lingering in the current market around vendor offerings, it remains a challenge for many prospective clients to determine an appropriate solution. This Ovum Decision Matrix provides a roadmap for enterprises across verticals to select from the leading providers of home-based contact center services, given the current state of the market. Ovum view Determining the right home-based contact center outsourcing services vendor is not easy and requires a significant amount of due diligence. This is largely because this offering is extremely commoditized, with limited differentiation among vendors in terms of the features of their respective virtualized services. Enterprises looking for a home-based outsourcing vendor should evaluate how players in this space execute (and have executed) contracts, in addition to their respective magnitude in the virtual contact center delivery market. The ongoing debate about employee-based providers versus those that use independent contractors has had a limited impact on the vendors assessed. However, one aspect of differentiation that has emerged is the increasing presence of bricks-and-mortar firms operating in the home-based contact center market, and the advantages that these companies can bring in the form of existing contact center operational processes, geographic presence, and certifications. Ovum believes that these bricks-and-mortar firms are likely to shake up the established pure-play vendors over the long term, as outsourced home-based agents increase in popularity as part of a broad enterprise contact center strategy. Key findings The features offered by leading home-based agent vendors are highly commoditized, with little differentiation across service lines. There is limited geographic reach beyond North America among most vendors of home-based agent services. Vertical presence and expertise is a key differentiator for providers of work-at-home services. Enterprises can expect a varied degree of contact channel and horizontal experience from leading players in the home agent market. Page 2

3 Vendor solution selection Inclusion criteria Many firms provide home-based agent outsourced contact center services. However, for the purposes of this Ovum Decision Matrix, the following inclusion criteria were applied to vendors: A proven track record of home-based outsourcing delivery Each vendor had a history of providing (and currently provides) home-based contact center services. Scale Contact center outsourcers had a minimum level of revenue to demonstrate their scale. Confirmation of participation Each vendor needed to provide Ovum with the relevant data and qualitative information necessary to thoroughly assess their offering. Methodology Features assessment In this assessment, Ovum uses a checklist of features and functionalities to differentiate between the leading vendors in the marketplace. The assessment criteria for home-based agent outsourcing are as follows: Agent monitoring/security How a contact center outsourcing vendor monitors agent activity and creates a working environment that secures end-user information. Workforce management / scheduling How the contact center outsourcer manages its work-at-home labor force. Team communication capabilities The ability of the outsourcer to facilitate inter-team communication, as well as communication between agents and their supervisors. Training How outsourcers train their home-based agents. Hiring The manner in which outsourcers recruit top-quality agents for their work-at-home deployments. Certifications Assesses which vertical or client certifications outsourcers provide to their clients. Pricing models Which pricing mechanisms outsourcers can offer clients, ranging from time-based mechanisms to pay-for-performance. Supported agent equipment Assesses the different devices and technologies that outsourcers support in their customer-facing activities. Workforce optimization The various provisions that an outsourcer has in place to ensure ongoing improvements in their delivery of home-based contact center activity. Execution In this dimension, Ovum reviews the capabilities of home agent contact center outsourcers around the following key areas: Maturity The stage that the service is currently at in the maturity lifecycle, relating to the maturity of the overall deployment of home-based agents. Vertical expertise The industry-specific capabilities of vendors. Page 3

4 Functional expertise The horizontal capabilities of contact center outsourcers using the home-based model. Channel expertise The extent to which outsourcers are able to provide home-based contact center outsourcing services across voice and non-voice contact channels. Geographic expertise The experience of contact center outsourcers in providing home-based agents across different countries/regions. Virtualized delivery The extent to which home-based agent vendors provide their services virtually to their clients. Agent profile The type of agents that are being recruited by home-based outsourcers and the relevant experience that they bring. Management experience The tenure of executives guiding home-based agent vendors in terms of their experience working in this CRM space. Market impact In this dimension, Ovum assesses the global market impact of home-based agent providers. Market impact is measured across seven categories, each of which has a maximum score of 10. For the purposes of this section, all market data used was from FY Revenues Each vendor s global home-based revenues are calculated as a percentage of the market leader's. Overall global revenue carries the highest weighting in the market impact dimension. Regional penetration Ovum determines each vendor s revenues in four countries/regions: the US, Canada, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Vertical penetration Ovum determines each vendor s revenues in the following verticals: energy and utilities; financial services; healthcare; life sciences; manufacturing; media and entertainment; professional services; public sector; retail; wholesale and distribution; telecommunications; and travel, transportation, logistics, and hospitality. Horizontal penetration Ovum determines each vendor s revenues in the following functional areas: customer care; sales and marketing; technical support; non-voice support; social media; and other. Channel penetration Ovum determines each vendor s revenues from the following contact channels: voice; ; social media; web-chat; video-chat; SMS; and other. Language penetration Ovum determines each vendor s revenues in the following languages: English; Spanish (US); Spanish (European); French (Canada); French (European); German; and other. Size-band coverage Ovum determines each vendor s revenues in three company size bands: large enterprises (over 5,000 employees), medium-sized enterprises (1,000 4,999 employees), and small enterprises (fewer than 1,000 employees). Ovum ratings Market leader This category represents the leading home-based agent vendors that Ovum believes are worthy of a place on most enterprise selection shortlists. The vendor has established a commanding market position with a service and record that are widely accepted as best-of-breed. Page 4

5 Market challenger The vendors in this category have good market positioning and are selling and marketing the product well. The services offer competitive functionality and a good price-performance proposition, and should be considered for selection. Market follower Vendors in this category typically meet the requirements of a particular kind of customer. As tier-one offerings, they should be explored as part of the selection process. Market and service analysis Ovum Decision Matrix: home-based agent outsourcing, There is significant reason for this report to be published at the mid-point of The demand for home-based contact center services delivered by third parties continues to grow at a rate exceeding that of the overall bricks-and-mortar outsourced CRM sector (as per Ovum s recent report The Future of Home-Based Agent Outsourcing, IT ), and interest in this business model continues to gain traction among enterprises across industries and regions. A number of factors are pushing enterprises in the direction of home-based outsourcing. The most important include the business model s reputation for high-quality customer care (due to more educated and sophisticated agents), lower operating costs due to home agents having fewer overheads than a contact center facility, and lower rates of agent attrition. Figure 1 depicts the vendors of work-at-home contact center services that Ovum has classified among the market leaders, challengers, and followers. Figure 1 shows the solutions clustered together in the full-scale Ovum Decision Matrix for features (x-axis), execution (y-axis), and market impact (size of bubble). This figure shows clearly the extent to which the players offering home-based agent solutions are offering competitive and comparable solutions. Thus, Figure 2 zooms in on the cluster of vendors in Figure 1 to get a closer look at their positions. Page 5

6 Figure 1: Ovum Decision Matrix: outsourced home-based CRM services Figure 2: Ovum Decision Matrix: outsourced home-based CRM services Table 1: Ovum Decision Matrix: home-based contact center outsourcers, Market leaders Market challengers Market follower Page 6

7 Arise Convergys Sykes LiveOps Working Solutions (WS) Sitel Sutherland Teleperformance West Market leaders: Arise, Sykes, Working Solutions There are three standout market leaders in the domain of home-based agent outsourcing, namely Sykes, Working Solutions, and Arise. It is important to note that the field of competitors analyzed for this report was very strong, and in many cases rankings among all nine were tight due to intense competition having brought about very strong offerings for all players. However, the three firms mentioned above stand out across all three categories used for the purposes of this Decision Matrix. This result will be no surprise to any industry watcher of the contact center space. Each of these leaders has been providing home-based contact center services for some time, allowing them to perfect their craft and develop best-in-class business models. Market challengers: Convergys, LiveOps, Sitel, Teleperformance, West Ovum has identified five market challengers among the home-based agent vendors analyzed in this report. These challengers are Convergys, LiveOps, Teleperformance, Sitel, and West. Each of these five organizations falls into this category for different reasons, but it is clear that "challenger" is an appropriate term, as these five vendors provide intense competition in the virtual-based services market. It is also significant that four out of the five vendors in this category are bricks-and-mortar contact center outsourcers that, at various points, have decided to take on the delivery of virtualized CRM services, providing very strong competition to the pure-play operators. LiveOps, the pure-play virtual vendor among the five challengers, has a longstanding and respected reputation among both competitors and enterprises. Market follower: Sutherland Global Services Sutherland Global Services is the one market follower in this year s Decision Matrix. Although Sutherland s work-at-home solution has many of the same features as its competitors, it is not as developed, and its presence in the virtual agent market is much more limited. This has had an impact on its rankings. However, Sutherland intends to place much greater emphasis on developing and growing its virtual agent service in the future. If this is handled properly, it should change the vendor s classification when this document is refreshed. Page 7

8 Market leaders Market leaders: features Figure 3: Ovum Decision Matrix: outsourced home-based CRM services , market leaders features In terms of overall market leaders, Ovum has identified Sykes, Working Solutions, and Arise as the vendors that are setting the standard for home-based contact center outsourcing services. However, all nine companies examined for this Decision Matrix performed strongly in the features category, with very limited difference between players in some cases, speaking to the highly commoditized nature of this industry. Sykes clearly benefitted from its 2012 acquisition of Alpine Access, which boosted its home-based offering tremendously (see Ovum s opinion "Sykes buys Alpine Access: consolidation of home agent outsourcing space begins"). The results of this year s Decision Matrix are proof of this, given that Sykes was listed among the top three vendors in a number of features categories, most notably in agent monitoring/security, hiring, and certifications. Working Solutions was also a leader in the features category, which is unsurprising given the Dallas-based firm s longevity in this delivery model. Similar to Sykes, Working Solutions was included among the top three vendors in six categories, faring especially strongly in agent monitoring/security and workforce optimization. Arise s performance in the features category was solid, featuring strongly in three categories: pricing models, workforce optimization, and agent equipment supported. Interestingly, West Corporation (a long-time vendor in this space) emerged in the features section as a very strong competitor, featuring among the top three in five separate categories. LiveOps also performed well in terms of features offered, placing among the top three vendors in a number of categories, including workforce Page 8

9 optimization and workforce management/scheduling, which is not surprising given the length of time this firm has been providing home-based agent solutions. Market leaders: execution Figure 4: Ovum Decision Matrix: outsourced home-based CRM services , market leaders execution There was some degree of consistency between vendors that ranked as the leaders in the execution and features categories. Specifically, Sykes once again emerged as one of the top players examined in this report by counting among the top three vendors in four categories: maturity of offering, functional expertise, channel expertise, and agent profile. This should come as no surprise considering the synergies that Sykes was able to achieve through the merging of its home-agent offering with that of Alpine Access in Working Solutions also performed strongly in the execution category, again playing to its strength as a long-time vendor of home-based agent services. Specifically, Working Solutions was very solid in vertical, function, and channel capabilities, coupled with a strong showing in virtual delivery and the tenure of its leadership. LiveOps was strong in the execution category, which is logical considering the amount of time that it has been providing home-based contact center services. The firm was included among the top three in five categories, including maturity of offering, vertical expertise, virtualized delivery, agent profile, and management tenure. Arise rounded out the top players in this category, ranking in the top three for maturity of offering, vertical expertise, agent profile, and virtual delivery. Page 9

10 Market leaders: market impact Figure 5: Ovum Decision Matrix: outsourced home-based CRM services , market leaders market impact Market impact analyses the extent to which a particular vendor is influencing the home-based agent space, based on its overall presence. The virtual agent space is still relatively immature compared to the bricks-and-mortar business model, so competitors in this study were quite varied across the various components of this category. Arise was the clear leader in the market impact section, counting itself among the top three vendors in several components, which speaks to the volume of business that the firm currently turns over, coupled with its reach in different locations, functions, channels, and languages. Working Solutions and Sykes also fared quite well in the market impact category, placing among the top three vendors in six of the seven categories. Working Solutions only shortfall was in regional revenue diversity, while Sykes narrowly missed being in the top three in the horizontal section. Page 10

11 Vendor analysis Arise Ovum recommendation: leader Figure 6: Arise radar diagrams Arise is ranked as a leader in this year s outsourced home agent Ovum Decision Matrix. One of the most important reasons for this ranking is its market presence, with it posting the highest revenues among the companies examined in this report. This is very important for enterprises that remain wary of the overall financial health of the outsourcers with which they engage (see Ovum s most recent CRM Outsourcing Business Trends 2014 report), especially those competing in relatively immature business models, such home-based agent delivery. Stability via revenue strength was re-enforced by Arise s relatively low level of agent attrition, which means lower costs related to recruitment and training, coupled with higher long-term standards of customer service delivery. In addition, Arise has been in the home-based delivery market for well over a decade, providing references in terms of existing clients and proof of concept as a proven vendor in this space. Arise performed well across all features of its home agent offering, with the firm placing well ahead of its competition in most categories. However, Arise has fewer certifications than other players in this space (a number of the pure-play outsourcers are in the same position), and this could prove problematic for prospective clients in verticals that have heavy compliance requirements with regard to their third-party contact center delivery engagements. Page 11

12 Ovum believes that there are a number of good opportunities for Arise as a home-based outsourcing vendor. The clearest one is regional diversification: Arise has been among the most pro-active virtualized outsourcers to push into Canada and Western Europe, locations where there is growing interest in this business model. Arise has also placed an emphasis on growing its revenues and capabilities in multichannel delivery (including social media), which will likely provide an opportunity as more home-based clients and prospects aim to consolidate more non-voice work with agents using this business model. Convergys Ovum recommendation: challenger Figure 7: Convergys radar diagrams Convergys brings a number of strengths to the table, making it a challenger in the home-based agent marketplace. One of the most obvious but compelling strengths is Convergys s reputation as a broad-based provider of contact center services and technology. This is a tremendous advantage when prospecting business from in-house contact center managers that may not be familiar with the home-based agent business model, but which will likely be aware of Convergys s brand presence in the CRM marketplace. Another strength of Convergys s home agent offering is the functional diversity it provides to existing and prospective clients through its solid experience and magnitude across not just customer service, but sales and marketing and technical support as well. Being able to provide some hub-and-spoke capabilities alongside its virtual capacity is also a strength for Convergys, especially when seeking new business among enterprises that may wish to begin their home-based agent experience with less of a virtual focus at the outset. Feature-wise, Convergys places well Page 12

13 against its competitors in almost all categories, and the investment that Convergys has made in its training platform, which can be applied both virtually and in-person, is a noted area of strength. Convergys has a clear opportunity to leverage the broader company s presence in emerging work-at-home regions (such as Canada and Western Europe), a factor that has potentially been enhanced by the acquisition of Stream Global Services at the outset of Convergys s name and reputation in non-us locations will help sell not just virtualized CRM contracts, but the concept of work-at-home as an acceptable way of providing customer support. Convergys also has an opportunity to use the expertise found in the broader organization to build out its ability to deliver work-at-home agents across industries, non-voice channels, and emerging horizontals. Ovum will be watching how Convergys diversifies its presence in more vertical markets, as a large proportion of its business is currently concentrated on a limited number of sectors (with particular strength in retail and telecoms). However, within Convergys s current work-at-home vertical mix, it is performing a wide swath of horizontal functions, a strength that it can readily leverage when attacking other industries with its home-based offering. LiveOps Ovum recommendation: challenger Figure 8: LiveOps radar diagrams LiveOps is one of the most established pure-play home agent outsourcers, and it brings a number of strengths to the table for existing and prospective customers. LiveOps offers a clear advantage in horizontal delivery, with a very diverse mix of expertise and experience across customer care, sales Page 13

14 and marketing, and technical support; going forward, being able to move beyond customer care will be an essential element for any home-based vendor to win new contracts. From a vertical perspective, LiveOps s industry expertise in retail, financial services, and healthcare plays to its advantage, as does its experience in other smaller (yet emerging) sectors. LiveOps also performed strongly in the features category notably with its agent monitoring/security service, which ranked well, due to its end-to-end nature emanating from the agent login point to the storage of data. LiveOps also meets higher certification levels than its pure-play competitors, a clear advantage when aiming to win contracts with enterprises that place a heavy emphasis on compliance. Ovum believes that LiveOps is wise with its strategy to increase the diversity of its horizontal delivery capabilities, which will serve the firm well in a space in which more clients and prospects are interested in using this business model to handle more than just basic customer care. If LiveOps can build on its success so far by moving into emerging channels (including non-voice and social media), it will be in a position to lead the work-at-home industry in terms of best-in-class horizontal delivery. However, LiveOps should look to expand the weighting of its vertical footprint and expand into regions outside the US, while ensuring that its work-at-home offering is not overshadowed by its parallel platform CRM offering in order to reduce market confusion about the company s emphasis. Sitel Ovum recommendation: challenger Figure 9: Sitel radar diagrams Page 14

15 Sitel has been rated as a challenger among the work-at-home players evaluated in this Decision Matrix. It brings with it a number of strengths, the first of which is very strong brand recognition (similar to Convergys and other global bricks-and-mortar operators offering home-based services). As an outsourcer with a broad offering of CRM services, Sitel is well placed to provide clients with work-at-home services as either a standalone solution or as part of a broader offering. Equally notable is the strong growth that Sitel s home-based delivery offering has recently experienced: in the first nine months of 2013, the firm doubled the size of its virtual workforce, a clear indication that its virtualized solution is gaining attention in the marketplace. Sitel also deserves recognition for its vertical expertise using virtual agents, which is pronounced in non-traditional adopters of this business model, such as travel and tourism, and media. The features that Sitel offers are consistent with the other vendors evaluated for this report. The largest challenge that Sitel has to address is its limited market presence in the work-at-home space. Notwithstanding the rapid growth that Sitel has reported over the past several months, its overall size in the broader market is still relatively small compared to many of its competitors. In addition, Sitel s revenues are heavily weighted toward customer care and voice-based services, meaning it has yet to carve out a presence in higher-value areas such as non-voice work and other horizontal functions. Sitel has a real opportunity to build on its growth to date by leveraging its broader cross-company expertise to help develop work-at-home services tailored to emerging vertical markets, functions, regions, and channels. The lack of functional and channel diversification remains a weakness for Sitel, but by taking advantage of the company s presence as a leading provider of bricks-and-mortar services across market segments, its work-at-home business could be enhanced and made attractive to firms beyond its current client demographic. Page 15

16 Sutherland Ovum recommendation: follower Figure 10: Sutherland radar diagrams Ovum has ranked Sutherland s home-based agent offering as a follower in this report. One of the primary reasons for this is its market presence: despite its reputation as a leading provider of BPO services, Sutherland is relatively small as a vendor of home-based contact center outsourcing, posting the lowest revenues among all the outsourcers examined in this brief, with the overwhelming bulk of revenues coming out of the US (albeit with a growing presence in Canada). Sutherland s deployments are heavily concentrated in a small number of vertical markets, which could be a limiting factor when going after business in other sectors in terms of industry-based references. However, Sutherland maintains a relatively large presence in the emerging healthcare segment, a key industry target for home-based vendors. In addition, Sutherland s channel deployments are currently weighted heavily toward voice, and for the vendor to emerge as a challenger or leader in future Decision Matrices, it is essential that it places a greater emphasis on non-voice channels. Sutherland s functionality is concentrated on technical support, which provides higher-margin work for the firm, but a greater emphasis on other horizontals will be important to make its offering attractive to enterprises that do not have a technology focus. However, Sutherland has significant potential as a home-based agent vendor. Currently, the firm provides some hub-and-spoke functionality as well as fully virtualized capabilities, which is likely to be a selling point for enterprises looking to use this delivery model. In addition, the features of Sutherland s home-based agent offerings are competitive with those of the rest of the firms evaluated Page 16

17 in this report, with notable strength in the domain of industry certifications, which could appeal to compliance-focused prospects. If Sutherland can leverage its broader organization s expertise to offer a broader functional and channel offering, it could diversify beyond the limited regions and verticals that it currently services, making it very likely that the vendor would grow as a competitor in this market. Sykes Ovum recommendation: leader Figure 11: Sykes radar diagrams Sykes s presence as a home-based agent vendor cannot be overstated: the company was a provider of these services even prior to the acquisition of Alpine Access in 2012, and it has leveraged the expertise and technology from this acquisition to craft an offering that Ovum has included in the leader category of this year s Decision Matrix. This status was abundantly clear when examining the different elements associated with Sykes home-agent service, with it exceeding the average ranking in each category, and coming first in pricing models, team communication, and hiring. Sykes s market presence is also strong, with it among the largest providers in the home-based agent marketplace (second only to Arise). In terms of verticals, Sykes has done well compared to most of the other outsourcers examined in this report, while still maintaining a heavy concentration in one particular segment. The same applies to functional and channel offerings in which Sykes s home-agent offering is weighted toward traditional customer care and voice offerings (similar to other vendors examined in this report). Ovum is encouraged by Sykes s efforts to diversify into the provision Page 17

18 of non-voice services as well as broader functionality, both of which are higher-margin offerings that are likely to appeal to a larger number of prospective clients. In the long run, Ovum feels that Sykes will remain a strong competitor in the provision of home-based agent services. To date, it has been exceptionally strong in positioning its virtual offering as part of a broader portfolio of contact center services. The key for the future will be to move beyond North America, where it has established a strong presence as a vendor of choice, and to use the Sykes brand in other developed countries where it currently competes as a provider of CRM services. Teleperformance Ovum recommendation: challenger Figure 12: Teleperformance radar diagrams Teleperformance has been ranked a challenger in this year s Decision Matrix. The firm has offered home-based agent services for some time, but it has not emphasized them to the same extent as other bricks-and-mortar BPO providers. This is reflected in Teleperformance s market presence, with the firm s revenues among the lower range of firms examined in this report, and it is currently competing in only a limited number of vertical markets and geographies. In addition, the horizontal functions and channels in which Teleperformance provides services using home-based agents are somewhat smaller than some of its competitors. However, Ovum believes that Teleperformance s offering has a number of very positive aspects that position it firmly in the challenger category. For one, it has a strong features offering, with a solid performance in workforce optimization and agent monitoring/security categories. In addition, the firm Page 18

19 has managed a relatively low level of home agent attrition, and has a pool of talent with excellent experience and education. The firm is already doing limited amounts of virtual agent work in non-us markets (notably Canada and Western Europe), which it can use as a springboard to diversify its geographic revenue base, a crucial differentiator for success in this sector going forward. Ovum is also encouraged by the emphasis that Teleperformance has placed on solidifying its work-at-home offering s management team, most notably by bringing on a full-time work-at-home offering general manager, as of July 1st, and through the additions of Jim Farnsworth and Tadd McAnally, who are leading Teleperformance s Professional Services Division, and are among the most respected thought leaders in the work-at-home space. These moves will be vital for Teleperformance to increase its overall presence in the home agent market, as will applying the same lessons that the broader company has learned in penetrating new verticals, functional areas, channels, and geographies. West Ovum recommendation: challenger Figure 13: West radar diagrams West is a long-time competitor in the work-at-home arena, and has been ranked as a challenger in this year s Decision Matrix. This may come as a surprise to industry watchers familiar with the pioneering work West has done in providing virtual agent work with both exposure and credibility. However, West s overall presence in the home agent market has been dwarfed by many of its Page 19

20 competitors, and was ranked second lowest among all the vendors examined in this study. Furthermore, the majority of its revenue comes from the US market. However, West s home agent offering holds many positive aspects that merit discussion and position it as a competitor of substance in this space. For one, West brings very strong features to its home agent offering, placing it ahead of or equal to the average cross-competitor ranking (no small feat considering the commoditized nature of home agent delivery). In addition, West has also diversified its vertical base of clients over the past three years, and while its industry-based revenue is still heavily weighted toward one sector, Ovum is impressed with the extent to which West has penetrated new and non-traditional markets for virtual agent delivery. The same applies to both its functional offerings and multichannel delivery, where West appears to be making the right moves to diversify its home-based agent offering. West has all the elements of a potential market leader in the delivery of outsourced home agents, but the key will be for the firm to position its offering as a part of a broader CRM package that it can offer to both clients and prospects, so as to take advantage of the growth in this space. It will also be crucial for the vendor to continue efforts to diversify its services and verticals, and to push its success from the US into other regions (most notably Canada and Australia). Working Solutions Ovum recommendation: leader Figure 14: Working Solutions radar diagrams Page 20

21 Dallas-based home agent outsourcer Working Solutions has been classified as a leader in this year s Decision Matrix. It has been in the business for nearly 20 years and has proven itself to be capable of adapting its offering to suit evolving business environments. This is reflected in Working Solutions revenue, which was among the top three of the firms examined in this report, coming in behind only Sykes and Arise (the other two leaders identified by Ovum). In terms of vertical breadth, Working Solutions was the second-most vertically diverse vendor in this study, and was notable in that, from an industry standpoint, its revenues were not heavily weighted toward one particular sector, something that was unique among vendors. This diversity was also reflected in the fact that Working Solutions manages interactions for firms that are relatively evenly distributed across size bands, proving the company s ability to successfully manage interactions for the SME market long a target segment for the work-at-home market. Indeed, Working Solutions also has one of the most pervasive multichannel offerings among the vendors profiled, which will be crucial as enterprises look to move their work-at-home deployments beyond simple voice support. While not as geographically diverse as some vendors examined in this report, Working Solutions has managed to establish not only a strong presence in the US, but also a relatively high proportion of business from English and French-speaking Canada as well. The features of Working Solutions home agent offering are very solid relative to the competition. In fact, Working Solutions was at or ahead of the industry average in every category (with the exception of certifications), speaking to the expertise and experience of this firm. Ovum anticipates that Working Solutions will remain a top-line vendor in the home agent space for the foreseeable future. Its leadership has remained stable and the company has made the right moves to draw in new talent when opportunities have presented themselves. The key initiative to watch will be the company s attempts to increase its geographic footprint beyond North America. Appendix Further reading The Future of Home-Based Agent Outsourcing, IT (January 2014) Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Social Media CRM Outsourcer, , IT (January 2014) "Sykes buys Alpine Access: consolidation of home agent outsourcing space begins," IT (July 2012) CRM Outsourcing Business Trends 2014, IT (April 2014) Author Peter Ryan, Principal Analyst, IT Services [email protected] Page 21

22 Ovum Consulting We hope that this analysis will help you make informed and imaginative business decisions. If you have further requirements, Ovum s consulting team may be able to help you. For more information about Ovum s consulting capabilities, please contact us directly at [email protected]. Copyright notice and disclaimer The contents of this product are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa Telecoms and Media Limited, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this product are the trademarks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. This product may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this product was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa Telecoms and Media Limited nor any person engaged or employed by Informa Telecoms and Media Limited accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content. Any views and/or opinions expressed in this product by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. Page 22

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