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2016 West African BusinessProcess Optimization Competitive
Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award
2016
WEST AFRICAN BUSINESS PROCESS OPTIMIZATION COMPETITIVE
STRATEGY INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP AWARD
2016
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 “We Accelerate Growth”
Contents
Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3
Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3
Strategy Innovation and Customer Impact .............................................................. 3
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8
Significance of Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership ...................................... 9
Understanding Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership ...................................... 9
Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 10
Best Practice Award Analysis for iSON BPO, West Africa ................................................ 10
Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................. 10
Strategy Innovation ............................................................................................ 11
Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 11
Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 12
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 13
Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 13
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 14
About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 15
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 3 “We Accelerate Growth”
Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
The BPO industry in West Africa is at its early growth stage. It has a healthy mix of local
and international providers. iSON BPO, CNSSL, and ConSol are among the leading local
providers, while Interra Networks and Tech Mahindra are among the leading international
providers. Telecommunications and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Banking, Financial
Services, and Insurance (BFSI), Pay TV, and Government are among the key industries
utilising BPO services in West Africa. However, there are concerns around data security
and cyber security, which the government is trying to solve by creating favorable political
and regulatory measures that will attract foreign players to invest in the country, further
improving the business and innovation environment.
Lack of financial assistance especially capital funding to set up and run BPO operations is
hampering the growth and development of the BPO industry.
The limited and uneven supply of power is another major problem hampering the smooth
function of the BPO operations. Reliable power supply is a prerequisite for BPO providers
to operate on a 24x7 basis to support different time zones. This is resulting in high
overheads as providers instead rely on their own diesel generators.
Even though unemployment rates are high in West Africa, finding resources with the right
skill set still remains a challenge to most BPO providers. However, many providers have
set up in-house training programs to train and equip agents with required skills.
Strategy Innovation and Customer Impact
Strategy Effectiveness
iSON BPO focuses on creating a team with strong domain knowledge and equip them with
skills required to directly deal with their clients. This has driven client and employee
satisfaction. Above all, it has enabled iSON BPO to remain competitive. Highlighted below
are some of their strategies and its impact:
• iSON BPO’s early partnership with Airtel Africa since their entry in 2010 has helped
them to gain a strong foothold in the telecommunications industry. This is apparent
from the fact that iSON BPO has procured nearly 100% of all new outsourcing projects
from the telecommunications industry ever since it entered the market.
• iSON BPO’s complete acquisition of Spanco Limited (SPAL), an Indian-based
telecommunications and contact centre services provider, in 2013 helped iSON BPO to
further strengthen its BPO service offerings. Spanco’s strong onshore operations in
Middle East, UK, US, and India have not only enabled iSON BPO to further strengthen
its global presence but also expand its client base.
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 4 “We Accelerate Growth”
• Given that semi-urban and rural population comprises of 60-70% of the West African
population, iSON BPO started setting up operations in Tier-II cities in all West African
countries in which it has operations. This has helped iSON BPO to reduce cost of
operations significantly, while having wider access to labour at relatively lower wages.
• iSON BPO uses Avaya’s end-to-end platforms that comprises of Interactive Voice
Response (IVR), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), and Workforce Optimization
(WFO). This has helped the provider to achieve improved IVR self-service resolution
levels, improved accessibility to information on agents and queue levels, and better
visibility on real-time performance that helps in efficient strategic decision-making.
• Furthermore, the usage of Avaya’s Real-Time Adherence (RTA) Dashboard has helped
iSON BPO to improve the average response time to customers and reduce waiting time
in queue. Also, the agent skill-set configuration tool has enabled the provider to
allocate the right set of agents in queues to offer services to customers in the earliest
possible time.
• iSON BPO follows a recruitment policy of hiring 100% local talent. This has helped the
provider to hire multilingual workforce that has capabilities to support up to 30+
languages including English, French, and other major local languages such as Hausa,
Igbo, Yoruba, Ibibio, Edo, Fulfulde, and Kanuri. Furthermore, this has enabled the
provider to deliver high quality voice services.
• iSON BPO’s practice of hiring Subject Matter Experts from the client segments has
helped the provider to drive the business through the strong domain knowledge of
their employees. This has enabled them to serve their clients better, while providing
value addition to their clients in achieving their objectives. For instance, as part of its
$300 million outsourcing contract with MTN, iSON BPO will manage MTN’s contact
centre operations in 7 countries in Africa. Also, nearly 5,000 MTN employees will be
trained and aligned with iSON BPO’s processes to support MTN’s contact centre
operations.
• Most of the business which has been sourced in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region
in last 4 years has come to iSON BPO. As a result, the provider has close to 70%
market share in the third party outsourced contact center space.
Thus, the above mentioned strategies have helped iSON BPO to grow leaps and bounds
and emerge as a strong regional provider in West Africa with operations in 7 countries
such as Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger.
Furthermore, they have also enabled iSON BPO to procure assignments from largest US
companies which are being executed from African countries.
Strategy Execution
Given that the service quality of local industries such as Telecommunications, BFSI, Retail,
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 5 “We Accelerate Growth”
and Aviation was sub-standard when iSON BPO entered the market in 2010, iSON BPO
used this opportunity and pioneered the initiative to develop SSA a viable alternate
outsourcing destination. iSON BPO’s required Intellectual Property (IP) and skill set along
with its vast experience in the Indian BPO market has helped to emerge as a strong
provider in the West African BPO market.
The Strategy and Business Solution teams are the primary teams that are responsible for
identifying and developing competitive strategies. These teams draw information and
resources heavily from various functions including training, operations, quality, marketing,
and corporate departments of the organization on an as-needed basis to develop
strategies. These strategies further get approved by the Executive Committee before
actual implementation.
Highlighted below are some of iSON BPO’s operational best practices:
iSON BPO has made significant investments in implementation of state-of-the-art
technology with focus on providing tools to help the agents in performing more
efficiently with minimal error rate.
iSON BPO follows a completely process-driven methodology with global certifications
such as Quality Management System (ISO (9001:2008) and Information Security
Management System (ISO 27001:2013) in place. This has helped iSON BPO to
consistently maintain high service quality levels.
iSON BPO believes in all round employee development and has made substantial
investments in rigorous up-skilling initiatives. This has helped the provider to equip
agents with the required skill sets to handle tasks as they move up the hierarchy,
while increasing their efficiencies.
iSON BPO strictly does not hire any supervisory cadre from outside the company and
has created the entire supervisory staff of about 1000 employees by up-skilling and
promoting internal resources.
Putting up facilities at locations which are more convenient from employee perspective
and providing excellent work conditions for agents to be able to give output to the best
of their capabilities.
High focus on employee engagement and reward and recognition programs. Very large
focus on employee empowerment and delegation with strong governance and control
mechanisms in place.
Furthermore, iSON BPO is trying to replicate the proven strategies that have enabled the
provider to emerge successful in the telecommunications industry to the other verticals
such as Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Media, Retail, and eCommerce.
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Competitive differentiation
Service diversification and moving beyond offering standard contact centre services is the
main competitive differentiator factor between iSON BPO and its competitors.
Most BPO and Contact Centres in West Africa offer the basic services such as
inbound/outbound contact centre services for voice, chat and e-mail; HR management;
and marketing services. Besides these services, iSON BPO also offers additional services
such as content digitization, healthcare administration, policy administration, market
research, analytics, social media support, government to customer (G2C) services,
customer acquisition and campaign management, customer on-boarding, and customer
retention/revenue assurance which have helped the provider to stand out in the
outsourcing space.
Most of the competitors focus on providing services to fewer verticals such as the
telecommunications; banking and financial industries, while iSON BPO targets a wider
range of industries, such as insurance, media and entertainment, retail, aviation,
government, energy and utilities, amongst others.
iSON BPO’s diversification strategy along with an efficient operational model has helped
the provider not only to combat the decline in domestic demand but also enable its clients
to see the value in outsourcing their non-core activities, thereby remaining competitive
and successful in the BPO market in West Africa.
Price/Performance value
iSON BPO follows ‘value for money’ strategy. For instance, iSON BPO has helped
telecommunications providers to achieve superlative service levels that surpass West
Africa’s conventional industry norms by far. They have also helped to reduce customer
service costs by 50%, thus making ‘customer experience’ a competitive edge in the
telecommunications industry.
iSON BPO has made substantial investments in creating world class service delivery
infrastructure while enabling its employees to use relevant latest technologies which
ultimately helps to superior quality customer service levels.
Customer Service Experience
iSON BPO’s has employed automated escalation, response mechanisms, concepts of
closed looping on queries, and service recovery mechanisms so as to respond immediately
to service requests. This has enabled the telecommunications providers to drastically cut
down the wait time on customer care calls which used to run into several hours, while
resulting in a rapid increase in subscriber numbers.
iSON BPO’s strategies are highly customer centric with 100% focus on customer
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 7 “We Accelerate Growth”
experience management. This is evident from the fact that it offers services across a wide
range of channels such as e-mails, web chat, voice, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and
social media. The social media platforms supported are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and
Nairaland. This omni-channel customer support has enabled iSON BPO not only to improve
customer service experience across all customer segments, while substantially improving
customers’ accessibility to problem resolution. For instance, iSON BPO’s efficient
management of back-office processes have not only helped to reduce fraud rates but also
result in a significant growth of the mobile money business.
The customer feedback mechanisms used are internal audit mechanisms such as Voice of
Customer (VOC) which helps the management to improve incident resolution levels; daily
VOC reports that keep clients apprised of sudden issues such as downtime, network issue,
etc.; and monthly Net Promoter Score (NPS) reports as part of which outbound calls are
made to survey customers to capture reasons for calls to contact centres and suggestions
and ratings from customers that help iSON BPO to calculate NPS. Furthermore, visits are
made to client shops to capture VOC and also understand the competition in the market.
Brand Equity
iSON BPO is a leading BPO provider with 3715 employees and 2252 seats in West Africa.
It’s strong regional presence is evident from the fact that the provider started off with 65
call centre agents in Kenya in 2010 and has grown to 17 centres across 14 countries in
SSA with over 10,000 employees as of today, while their nearest competitors are at 2000
to 3000 employee levels. This has also helped iSON BPO to iSON BPO has business
operations across 15 countries in Africa, with its headquarters in Nigeria. Apart from
Africa, iSON BPO also has operations in India. The provider has inherited immensely from
iSON Technologies, the IT subsidiary of its parent iSON Group, in terms of infrastructure,
platforms, services, skills, and competencies.
The approach followed to build and strengthen the brand equity of their services is by way
of delivering quality services through their strategic initiatives, thereby winning the trust
of their customers. While iSON BPO had entered the West African market along with much
larger multinationals like Tech Mahindra, today there is no comparison in their positioning
against their competition in the eyes of relevant client categories.
CSR
July 23rd, 2016 iSON Group embarked on a new journey with Girl Effect to fulfill its CSR
objectives. Girl Effect and iSON’s landmark initiative “Girls Connect” went LIVE for the first
time in areas of Kano state in Northern Nigeria.
Girls Connect is a truly pioneering initiative that allows girls to access on-demand content
and personalized conversations that can enrich their lives. Girls will be able to call a toll
free number, listen to content on a number of topics ranging from friendship to safety,
and follow this up with a conversation with a trained female call centre operative to help
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 8 “We Accelerate Growth”
them make sense of what they’ve heard and apply it to their own lives.
This groundbreaking initiative is the result of an unlikely partnership between iSON, one of
Africa’s largest BPO and Technology groups, and Girl Effect, the organization building
brands and content that change the world for girls, so that girls can change the world.
iSON with its first-rate technical expertise, labor force and on-the-ground reach through
its call centres complements the “inspirational” partnership wherein Girl Effect brings its
content and girl centered technical knowledge.
iSON aims to reduce intergenerational poverty with girls as the highest point of leverage
in breaking this cycle.
Conclusion
iSON BPO, one of the leading BPO and Contact Centre providers in West Africa, has
diversified its services portfolio to offer a wide range of services across multiple industries.
This service diversification strategy coupled with an operational strategy that focuses on
continuous improvement has helped iSON BPO to stay ahead of competition. The
deployment of sophisticated tools has facilitated the integration of people, process and
technology and has enabled to perform operations efficiently. The operational strategy
which is the key to its success is characterized by nurturing employees with strong domain
expertise who are able to deliver high quality of services and improve time to delivery.
With its strong overall performance, iSON BPO has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2016
Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership award.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 9 “We Accelerate Growth”
Significance of Competitive Strategy Innovation and
Leadership
Any successful approach to achieving top-line growth must (1) take into account what
competitors are, and are not, doing; (2) meet customer demand with a comprehensive,
value-driven product or service portfolio; and (3) establish a brand that resonates deeply
with customers and stands apart from other providers. Companies must succeed at these
three things—brand, demand, and positioning—to achieve best-practice levels in
competitive strategy.
Understanding Competitive Strategy Innovation and
Leadership
As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all
play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however,
must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on strategy innovation and
customer impact.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 10 “We Accelerate Growth”
Key Benchmarking Criteria
For the Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts
independently evaluated two key factors—Strategy Innovation and Customer Impact—
according to the criteria identified below.
Strategy Innovation
Criterion 1: Strategy Effectiveness
Criterion 2: Strategy Execution
Criterion 3: Competitive Differentiation
Criterion 4: Executive Team Alignment
Criterion 5: Stakeholder Integration
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Best Practice Award Analysis for iSON BPO
Decision Support Scorecard
To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance
categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool
allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to
the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that
basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;
ratings guidelines are illustrated below.
RATINGS GUIDELINES
The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Strategy Innovation and Customer Impact
(i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each
criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of
this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to
the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative
rankings of the companies.
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 11 “We Accelerate Growth”
The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the
interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players
as Competitor 1 and Competitor 2.
DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR COMPETITIVE STRATEGY INNOVATION AND
LEADERSHIP AWARD
Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
Competitive Strategy Innovation and
Leadership
Strategy
Innovation
Customer
Impact Average Rating
iSON BPO 9 8 8.5
Competitor 2 6 5 5.5
Competitor 3 4 4 4.0
Strategy Innovation
Criterion 1: Strategy Effectiveness
Requirement: Strategy effectively balances short term performance needs with long-term
aspirations and vision for the company
Criterion 2: Strategy Execution
Requirement: Adoption of best-in-class processes to support the efficient and consistent
implementation of business strategy
Criterion 3: Competitive Differentiation
Requirement: Unique competitive advantages with regard to solution or product are
clearly articulated and well accepted within the industry
Criterion 4: Executive Team Alignment
Requirement: The executive team is aligned on the organization’s mission, vision, strategy
and execution
Criterion 5: Stakeholder Integration
Requirement: Strategy reflects the needs or circumstances of all industry stakeholders,
including competitors, customers, investors, and employees
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar
offerings in the market
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that
addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 12 “We Accelerate Growth”
positive experience throughout the life of the product or service
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty
Decision Support Matrix
Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,
analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to
visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at
best-in-class levels.
DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR COMPETITIVE STRATEGY INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP
AWARD
High
Low
Low High
Cu
sto
mer I
mp
act
Strategy Innovation
iSON BPO
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
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The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best
Practices Awards
Research Methodology
Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research
methodology represents the analytical
rigor of our research process. It offers a
360-degree-view of industry challenges,
trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of
Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.
Too often, companies make important
growth decisions based on a narrow
understanding of their environment,
leading to errors of both omission and
commission. Successful growth strategies
are founded on a thorough understanding
of market, technical, economic, financial,
customer, best practices, and demographic
analyses. The integration of these research
disciplines into the 360-degree research
methodology provides an evaluation
platform for benchmarking industry
players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.
360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN
THE CHAOS
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 14 “We Accelerate Growth”
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,
Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess
their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are
based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1 Monitor, target, and screen
Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe
Conduct in-depth industry research
Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria
2 Perform 360-degree research
Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline
Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners
Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria
Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another
3
Invite thought leadership in best practices
Perform in-depth examination of all candidates
Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all
candidates Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates
4
Initiate research director review
Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles
Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper
5
Assemble panel of industry experts
Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders
Share findings Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized award candidates
6
Conduct global industry review
Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility
Hold global team meeting to review all candidates
Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide
7 Perform quality check
Develop official award consideration materials
Perform final performance benchmarking activities
Write nominations Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes
8
Reconnect with panel of industry experts
Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient
Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner
Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria
9 Communicate recognition
Inform award recipient of award recognition
Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for
continued success Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand
10 Take strategic action
Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers
Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 15 “We Accelerate Growth”
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth
and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's
Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined
research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation
of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in
partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment
community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit
http://www.frost.com.
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