Outsourcing Ins...'s  Instablog

By Jamee C.

It is almost a given that what works for companies in the past, may not work for those in the present. Times have been changing and the processes and strategies employed by companies are no exception. Companies need to be innovative in terms of their processes especially that the market growth and development is moving at a fast pace; new technologies and strategies must be used to keep up with the demand. In the financial services sector, some asset managers have already turned to outsourcing companies and new technologies in order to maximize the resources they have and for them to focus on their core businesses.

Trading is a key element in the financial services sector, having lots of reconciliation and settlement procedures for transactions and accounts. This is only one of the categories under the sector which needs immediate attention, as the window for such processes are reduced to less than a day’s time and that the volume is continuously soaring.

Old-fashioned vs. Modern

In the past, asset and fund managers have heavily relied on manual reconciliation, which involves paper work, in conducting their brokerage reconciliation processes. Employing an old-fashioned reconciliation process has posed great opportunity costs and challenges to both asset managers and brokerage firms since such paper works expose these managers to a more tedious workflow, which consists of coordinating with custodian banks and prime brokers, and to higher risks of errors. Discrepancies in confirmation are most likely to happen in the old-fashioned process as these professionals input the data manually.

However, this workflow can change, together with having lesser risks and the elimination of those pain points that were raised. Employing the modern way in conducting reconciliation and file-matching indeed offers a better, streamlined workflow for all parties involved, including the brokerage firms and the fund managers. Trade execution data is required to be processed within 24 hours and if not processed at a specific time, there is a risk for the firm to lose its license; thus, time really is an important issue for such kind of service. This modern process, which uses technologies and automation, reduces the time constraint that envelopes the procedures done by financial analysts.

Technology: Bringing into the company a higher level of efficiency

An automated reconciliation process, which proves to be a more secure process, leads to a greater value of efficiency, especially on the part of capital management companies. What one can do upon using technologies is to gather account activity from two unique sources, preferably one from an internal source and one from an external source. But there still remains a third party who will serve as an arbitrator, in case there are any disputes that needs to be settled.

What also helps the managers in measuring the accuracy of the confirmations that they receive is the automated matching of figures. This provides a faster process for them to detect discrepancies in the data entered into the system. Afterwards, the analysts then review the automated reports and confirmation sheets. If there is a case of mismatched files, the analysts can amend the wrongly inputted data as there is a tool being used that is referred to as electronic messaging, which is quite similar as to how an instant messenger works. Amendments are only done after analysts go back and escalate the issue to the trader.

It is now evident that the industry has been exploring different methods as to how they can further better their company practices now that the trading volumes have grown quite significantly.

By Audrey B.

It is an inherent quality of man to seek faster, easier and even more cost-effective solutions, hence inventions such as the cellular phone/mp4 player/internet browser, and the rise of services such as outsourcing.  Sales are no exception.  With the constant pressure of gaining more sales and increasing revenues for companies, many have prescribed to shortcuts to the sales process in an effort to alleviate this pressure.

In the outbound presales process, leads are essential, without which, there can be no outbound sales.  Companies can choose to either buy these leads or to generate these leads by themselves.  In comparing these two methods of obtaining leads however, one can see that there are numerous pros and cons between the use of either, and it becomes a choice between what benefit you would choose over another.

Quick and Easy over Long and Tedious

What makes buying leads so appealing is the speed by which you are able to generate leads.  By just simply buying leads from the hundred or so companies online, you are able to obtain thousands, and even millions of leads in a short span of time.  Whereas lead generation requires time, effort and manpower in order to obtain contact information.

In order to shave some time off of your lead generation efforts, a smart move would be to first create qualifiers of companies that you will target.  Determine which companies would most likely avail of your services. Consider criteria such as industry, revenues, as well as who inside the company should you be targeting.

Quality over Quantity

Given that companies who sell leads can offer millions of contacts for a certain price, the risk of getting contact information for companies whom you and your company would actually not benefit from contacting would be high.  Investing on lead generation on the other hand, would afford you the ability to pre-qualify your leads according to your target market and requirements, eliminating companies that would not likely buy from your company.

A good timesaver for lead generation would be to find listings that already have your criteria such as lists of top companies in the industry, or list of accredited companies for an industry you are targeting.  Also, utilizing powerful social media tools such as Linkedin can save you time since you can filter out searches based on different criteria such as locations, and industry.  Plus, if the contact you are looking for has a Linkedin profile, then it will show up on the company profile page.

Fresh over Recycled

With buying leads, there is always the risk of getting “recycled” leads wherein these lists have already been sold to other companies. Most likely, once you get your own turn to call the contact, they will have already been exasperated by the number of calls they have received that they will no longer have the patience to listen to your sales pitch.  If you obtain your own leads you increase the chances of obtaining “fresh” leads, or companies that have not yet been contacted by your competitors.  This then increases the chances of the company availing of your product or service.

Rigid over Flexible

By buying pre-set leads you are in effect buying a product “as is”.  Therefore any modification in your requirement or if you find that there are some information that you do or do not require, will not be handled by the company whom you bought the leads from.  Even leads when sold by bulk and segregated into categories cannot capture the specific needs of each and every company.  In contrast, lead generation would give you greater flexibility in terms of the leads that you will obtain; allowing you to specify which contact information would be best acquired, such as work emails instead of generic Yahoo or Google emails or work contact information over home phone numbers.

A good place to start is always company websites but other sites such as BusinessWeek and Yahoo Finance, as well as business directories like Spoke, who have company listings that often already have addresses and contact numbers.  Member listings of associations and organizations are also good places to look.  Email addresses are usually the hardest ones to find, but by checking how company email addresses are formatted (example firstname_lastname@companyname.com), you can hazard a pretty good guess on what the email of the contact your looking for is.

By Audrey B.

With the rapid evolution of technology and communication, fields such as the outsourcing industry have had to adapt to changing technologies. Outsourcing companies have had to innovate as well as invest in newer and better solutions, in order to keep up with our changing world. But one of outsourcing’s sectors most influenced by the evolution of technology, and perhaps one that has also been most challenged by it, is contact center outsourcing. Given that the way people communicate has rapidly evolved from snail mail, to email to texting to tweets, it is unsurprising that companies are having a hard time to adapt, especially considering that give or take forty years ago, there was no email, twenty years ago, there was no texting and five years ago, there was no Twitter.

In an attempt to keep up with changing technologies, communication solutions providers and contact center outsourcing companies alike, are starting to refocus on this key area once again, with the global recovery.

A recent study by Frost & Sullivan released on the 8th of December highlighted the impact that the global economic slowdown had on the contact center applications market. The study noted that the slowdown had adversely affected spending by companies for the advancement of technologies. But while this is also so, it further highlighted as well that with the lessons learned from the slowdown, technologies will now be refocusing on cost-saving and production-boosting technologies among the outsourcing sector.

Meanwhile a report by Pelorus Associates, estimates that the contact center recording systems market will grow by 55% by 2015, with the total worldwide market hitting $1.24 billion. In 2009, the contact center recording systems market was at $800 million, up from the $795 million in 2007.

Companies such as the Hawaiian Electric Company are continuing efforts to integrate newer technologies into their processes. The company announced on the 15th of November that it has partnered with HCL Technologies (NSE:HCLTECH) division, HCL Axon, for the installation and integration of a SAP Utilities Customer Information System (CIS), which would help the company manage customer accounts, as well as service, call center and billing processes. Call center outsourcing company Stellar on the other hand, is investing on newer technologies for its clients. Stellar signed on with Panviva Inc on the 29th of November to avail of guidance systems which would streamline their call center agents’ processes.

Other companies such as the Italian call center outsourcing services provider, Call & Call are looking towards the cloud. The company announced on the 19th of November that it is expanding its cloud computing initiative with software giant and fellow outsourcing services provider, IBM (NYSE:IBM). According to Fabio Mattaboni, Call & Call’s CIO, “The reduction in energy costs and additional savings due to the longer life of each end device and reduced support costs will make us even more competitive in our customer-focused industry.”

Outsourcing company Sykes (NASDAQ:SYKE), on the other hand, won an award as a Recognized Innovator on the 29th of November for its innovative approach in technical support by utilizing traditional forums to enhance the customer experience. According to Dan Hernandez, EVP of Global Strategy for Sykes, “Blending SYKES’ Online Support Communities with traditional support channels allows us to broaden the reach for customer interactions while also capitalizing on community knowledge and meeting consumers’ needs for readily available and easily understood answers to their questions.”

More and more companies are realizing the benefit of, and are looking for more solutions to, the rapid changes in technology and communication that we are experiencing today. With contact centers starting to catch up with the technology, let’s hope that improved customer service will follow as well.