OUTSOURCING

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100 in partnership with

The

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100 At ISS we believe in planning and designing workplaces based on each company’s core culture, strategic priorities and specifi c needs. Workplace management is about creating the best conditions for people’s performance. By listening and by understanding how, when and where people work, we can design and integrate our service solutions, helping individuals and businesses to perform better. Want to know more about New Ways of Working? Please visit our website or contact us for more information.

F A C I L I T Y M A N A G E M E N T | C L E A N I N G | S U P P O R T | P R O P E R T Y | C AT E R I N G | S E C U R I T Y | issworld.com/en/about-iss/learning-zone

“New Ways of Working

is all about new ways of thinking”Wilhelm Douglas, Head of Knowledge

Centre, Global Corporate Clients

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Dynamic relationships with suppliers are boosting marginsand leading to innovative ways of doing business.

Outsourcingfor GOOd

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Outsourcing hasn’t always been a popular idea—nor has it always been well understood. Populist rhetoric sometimes paints a caricature of fat-

cat executives shipping jobs offshore, where low-skilled workers toil under dank conditions, all to save the boss a few pennies.

The reality is far different. In actual prac-tice, leading companies team up with domestic as well as overseas service providers, who perform vital functions at competitive rates and every skill level.

Yet as outsourcing evolves, even those famil-iar with the practice are surprised to find that the dynamics are shifting and opportunities are expanding. Outsourcing, it turns out, delivers more value than even its boosters realized.

Holding down costs is just one of its many benefits. Industry leaders are now strategically leveraging relationships with service provid-ers to help companies become not only more profitable, but also more strategic, innovative, flexible, and socially responsible in the long run.

“Companies are looking to use outsourcing as a driver for their growth and transforma-tion,” says Jagdish Dalal, Certified Outsourc-ing Professional®, chief advisor of thought leadership for the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). “Even though cost savings remains a key driver, customers are looking to providers for innovation and higher productivity.”

ShIfTING TeRRAINIt’s all part of a landscape that’s shifting in response to supply and demand. As organiza-tions have experienced the benefits of out-sourcing, they’ve made it a core part of their business models. The U.S. Government, for example, increased its use of contractors by 50% in the 2000s. It now spends a quarter of its discretionary budget—more than $300 bil-lion—on outsourced services, according to an analysis by Kirkland & Ellis, a Chicago-based law firm that advises clients on government contracting.

In the private sector, outsourcing also con-tinues to grow. In 2013, some 55% of compa-nies that outsource services reported that they had expanded contracts to take advantage of unplanned opportunities, according to a survey of 120,000 IAOP members and affiliates. Vendors are adapting to meet demand and expanding what they have to offer. Example: Near-shore locations like Mexico, Nicaragua, and Colombia have expanded their outsourcing talent pools 90% to 290% over the past four years, according to one industry analysis.

As workers in these locations master informa-tion technology (IT) skills, they’re capturing a larger share of the business, including cloud-based, real-time projects where it’s an advantage to share time zones with the U.S.

Beneficiaries of these trends are companies

h ospitals and physician groups face a perennial problem: unpaid bills. To see millions of dollars languishing on the books

as accounts receivable is all too common.

Revenues climb substantially, however, when members of the medi-cal industry enlist the expertise of the health care back-office specialists at MiraMed. Its team of almost 4,000 employees processes more than $2 billion in payments annually on behalf of over 700 hospitals and 8,000 providers.

Part of the secret is skill and scale. Because MiraMed focuses on billing and account management, it can deploy as much manpower as neces-sary in the United States, India, and the Philippines to ensure that every patient and insurance account is man-aged swiftly and properly.

“A hospital might have a few people calling on accounts receivable, but we can put 15, 20, or 30 indi-viduals on the issue to get it resolved much more quickly,” says MiraMed

CEO Tony Mira. “And because of our global presence, we can provide cost-effective solutions by running shifts round-the-clock. We provide the service faster, better, and cheaper.”

Faster resolutions mean more dol-lars in coffers for the current quarter. What’s more, providers avoid the problem of expired claims—bills too old to submit to insurance.

MiraMed also has a large pool of coding experts, including CCS and AHIMA-Approved ICD-10 profession-als who provide outsourced coding services. Its qualified staff of experts, including RHIA, RHIT, and RHIM professionals, can handle any and all coding-related needs. MiraMed is also prepared to address all client needs related to the upcoming ICD-10 conversion process.

But MiraMed brings value beyond its efficient handling of claims and

coding. The company also taps insights from big data analysis to help providers improve their systems and move away from common mistakes.

Consider, for example, a situation where the client is negotiating with a payor for a contract. Using MiraMed’s proprietary data analytics tool, F1RSTAnalytics, MiraMed can cross-analyze patient historical information for a particular payor and see how that payor performed against other payors. It can track under payments, over payments, delayed payments due to term of contract, and unnecessary rejections, and also monitor patient pay portion changes post-contract execution. This data can be analyzed to determine if the client is being reimbursed in accordance with the contract, and to ensure that patient deductibles have not diminished.

Another area MiraMed often finds room for improvement is in operating room billing services. MiraMed can analyze data using F1RSTAnalytics and track operating room utilization and efficiency. The OR is often the most expensive department in the hospital, so providing value-added information as to utilization and ef-ficiency helps our clients to be better managed with regard to cost and staffing.

Leveraging big data for stronger revenues is part of how MiraMed helps providers collect what they’ve earned. It’s a partnership that lets providers focus on treating patients—then rest easy knowing they’ll be paid appropriately for their services. ●

CustOmizinG suCCess

aDVertisement

Outsourcingfor GOOd

MiraMed Helps Hospitals and Physicians Reach Their Goals

25 YeARS INIT SeRvICeS

A “STAff SmART” AppROACh

ACOMMITMEnT to quality has made Miratech a trusted provider to a number of

multinational customers. Miratech’s Managed Competence CenterTM provides customers with needed IT skills through the most effective de-livery model for each business case; methods range from outstaffing to fixed-price projects and SLAs. These qualities, along with senior manage-ment attention on each project, result in the highest customer satisfaction and an average customer engage-ment exceeding five years. For more, visit miratechgroup.com

W HEn EvALUATInG an out-sourcing vendor, interview the individuals proposed

by the vendor for key roles on your engagement as if you were directly hiring them. Pay special attention to the skills you value such as leadership, ability to communicate, energy, and past success in the role. The quality of the people in these key roles will shape the quality of your relationship with the vendor and your satisfaction with the results. Our Technology Transactions and Outsourcing attorneys will provide insights that improve the value of your outsourcing relationships.

To learn more, contact Partner and Practice Chair James Kalyvas at 213.972.4542/jkalyvas@foley.com

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IAOP WORLd’S BeST OutsOurcInG AdvIsOrsNO. COmpaNy NO. COmpaNy

1 quiNt welliNgtON redwOOd 11 OlswaNg

2 avasaNt 12 pillsbury wiNthrOp shaw pittmaN

3 ey 13 huNtON & williams

4 pwC 14 FOley & lardNer

5 delOitte 15 elix-irr

6 alsbridge 16 paCe harmON

7 kirklaNd & ellis 17 ziNNOv maNagemeNt CONsultiNg

8 strategy& (FOrmerly bOOz & COmpaNy) 18 mayer brOwN

9 baker & mCkeNzie 19 matryzel CONsultiNg

10 bird & bird 20 the haCkett grOup

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that cannot—or opt not to—handle everything in-house. Contractors are eager to win their business. To that end, they’re adding value in ways that might at first seem like perks or bo-nuses, but are in fact becoming part and parcel of the outsourcing relationship.

Consider labor: These days, anyone who out-sources and gets nothing more than low-skill, inex-pensive labor is arguably living in a time warp. In last year’s IAOP survey, almost 40% of outsourc-ers said a main motivation is to access skills that would otherwise be unavailable. As companies

seek outsourcing opportunities, they’re increasingly finding them in high-skill areas, according to IAOP CEO Deborah Hamill.

“Ten years ago, IT and hu-man resources, such as payroll and benefit administration, were high users of outsourcing,” Hamill says. “Functions like legal and financial analysis are more recent examples.” IT labor experts predict that within three to five years, companies will find it no longer makes eco-nomic sense to manufacture IT solutions in high-cost locations like California. In fact, some are already finding top-tier IT ser-vices elsewhere at substantially lower costs.

COmmUNICATIONS TUTORIALTake Ford Motor Co. The auto and truck giant needed premier talent to develop a software ap-plication for customers on how to use MyFord Touch, an in-car communications and entertain-ment system. To create this user-friendly software as both a mobile app and a website

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download, Ford contracted with Luxoft, a Zug, Switzerland-based software engineering firm.

“We can help because we stay very focused on industry domains where we have expertise,” says Luxoft CEO Dmitry Loschinin.

Providing top-quality IT services at reduced rates is a function of more than low costs of living in countries where the work gets done. It’s also a byproduct of savvy business models used by experienced service providers. Luxoft, for example, offers prebuilt, industry-specific solutions for companies that don’t need fully customized software.

To be sure, keeping expenses down is a key reason companies outsource essential business operations. About 50% of those surveyed by IAOP said one of their main reasons for out-sourcing is to save on costs, either immediately or over the long term. But larger percentages identified other objectives as their main goals for outsourcing: Some 60% said outsourcing supports their plans for growth, and 56% said they do it to increase flexibility.

It’s no surprise that outsourcing curries particular appeal with growing companies. To

maximize returns on investment, they chan-nel resources into core competency areas or into research and development, then let their partners handle basic business operations while they focus on what they do best.

At this juncture, they’re responding to fertile conditions to get the most out of outsourcing relationships. In the IAOP survey, 38% of firms that outsource services said they were in the process of renegotiating to change prices, vol-umes, or services. That’s up from 27% in 2012. The climate is right, it seems, to find new value as well as new efficiencies.

mARkeTpLACe AGILITYOutsourcing also keeps the ambitious nimble. With well-structured contracts in place, com-panies are gaining marketplace agility that’s worth far more than what they pay to outsource services. They’re reaping the value that comes with being able to scale up or down as needed, without taking on the overhead or headaches that come with hiring, layoffs, or infrastructural investments.

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866.544.6647 info@miramedgs.com www.miramedgs.com

A World of Healthcare Business-Process Services.

MiraMed is a leading provider of revenue cycle services to healthcare providers across the country. We pair healthcare industry experts with world class processes, infrastructure and technology to deliver lasting results.

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IAOP GLOBAL OutsOurcInG 100 LeAdeRS

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NO. COmpaNy Website serviCes/key streNgth*1 iss issworld.com Facility Svcs. bp

2 aCCeNture accenture.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

3 Cbre cbre.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. bp

4 kelly OutsOurCiNg aNd CONsultiNg grOup kellyocg.com HR Mgmt. bp

5 COlliers iNterNatiONal colliers.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. mC

6 hCl teChNOlOgies hcltech.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

7 NCr serviCes ncr.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. dC

8 paCtera pactera.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. dC

9 CapgemiNi capgemini.com R&D dC10 Cgi cgi.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

11 Cassidy turley cassidyturley.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. Cr

12 FirstsOurCe firstsource.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

13 traNsCOsmOs trans-cosmos.co.jp/english/ CRM mC14 sitel sitel.com CRM dC

15 sykes eNterprises sykes.com CRM dC16 JONes laNg lasalle jll.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. bp

17 serCO glObal serviCes sercoglobal.us CRM dC

18 luxOFt luxoft.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. dC

19 JOhNsON CONtrOls - glObal WOrkplaCe sOlutiONs johnsoncontrols.com/globalworkplacesolutions Facility Svcs. mC

20 NeWmark grubb kNight FraNk ngkf.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. mC

21 tOWers WatsON towerswatson.com HR Mgmt. dC

22 l&t iNFOteCh lntinfotech.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

23 leaseplaN usa us.leaseplan.com Corporate Svcs. bp

24 iNsigma insigmaus.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

25 iba grOup ibagroupit.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

26 sOFtserve softserveinc.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

27 QuatrrO quatrro.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

28 iNFOteCh eNterprises infotech-enterprises.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

29 exl exlservice.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

30 sWiss pOst sOlutiONs swisspostsolutions.com Transaction Proc. bp

31 tivit tivit.com.br IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

32 WiCresOFt wicresoft.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

33 miNdtree mindtree.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

34 Cybage sOFtWare cybage.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

35 aegis aegisglobal.com/us/en CRM mC

36 sutherlaNd glObal serviCes sutherlandglobal.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

37 sOFttek softtek.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

38 maykOr maykor.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

39 datamatiCs glObal serviCes datamatics.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

40 xChaNgiNg xchanging.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

41 aON heWitt aonhewitt.com Administrative Svcs. bp

41 aptara aptaracorp.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

42 CaNON busiNess prOCess serviCes cbps.canon.com Document Mgmt. bp

43 CONCeNtrix concentrix.com Sales Cr

44 isOFtstONe isoftstone.com/en Indus.-Specific Svcs. Cr

45 tgestiONa tgestiona.com.pe Logistics dC

46 CieNet iNterNatiONal cienet.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

47 spi glObal spi-global.com Document Mgmt. dC

48 NeusOFt neusoft.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

49 diebOld iNtegrated serviCes® diebold.com/integratedservices.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

50 hgs teamhgs.com Transaction Proc. mC

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*KEY STRENGTHBP = Balanced Performance; CR = Customer References; DC = Demonstrated Competencies; MC = Management CapabilitiesNOTE: More Leader Group companies are represented on the final top 100

IAOP GLOBAL OutsOurcInG 100 RISING STARS

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IAOP GLOBAL OutsOurcInG 100 LeAdeRSNO. COmpaNy Website serviCes/key streNgth*51 epam systems epam.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

52 WNs glObal serviCes wns.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

53 UNisys unisys.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

54 iNdeCOmm glObal serviCes indecomm.net IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

55 mphasis, aN hp COmpaNy mphasis.com CRM dC

56 stefaNiNi stefanini.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

57 fpt sOftWare fpt.com.vn IT & Comm. Mgmt. Cr

58 ChiNasOft iNterNatiONal chinasofti.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

59 Cpa glObal grOUp cpaglobal.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

60 altisOUrCe altisource.com Real Estate & Asset Mgmt. Cr

61 dONleN donlen.com Corporate Svcs. bp

62 syNtel syntelinc.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

62 telUs iNterNatiONal telusinternational.com CRM mC

63 itC iNfOteCh itcinfotech.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. dC

64 teleteCh Teletech.com CRM mC

65 rr dONNelley glObal OUtsOUrCiNg outsourcing.rrd.com Document Mgmt. mC

66 mera meranetworks.com R&D bp

67 NeOris neoris.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

68 brOOkfield glObal relOCatiON serviCes brookfieldgrs.com Administrative Svcs. Cr

69 the resUlts COmpaNies theresultscompanies.com CRM mC

70 persisteNt systems persistentsys.com R&D mC

71 mastek mastek.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. dC

72 emeriO glObesOft emeriocorp.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

73 aditya birla miNaCs minacs.adityabirla.com CRM mC

74 iNspUr inspur.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

75 aramark aramark.com Facility Svcs. dC

75 Ness teChNOlOgies ness.com R&D mC

NO. COmpaNy Website serviCes/key streNgth*79 itraNsitiON itransition.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

80 team iNterNatiONal serviCes teaminternational.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

81 iNtetiCs intetics.com R&D bp

82 mirateCh miratechgroup.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

83 sOfteNgi softengi.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. Cr

84 resOurCe prO resourcepro.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. mC

85 prOmiNeNte prominente.com.ar IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

86 Oxagile oxagile.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. Cr

87 bleum bleum.com R&D mC

88 legalbase legalbaselaw.com Legal bp

89 auriga auriga.com R&D bp

90 serviCeNgiNebpO sebpo.com Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

91 harbiNger systems harbinger-systems.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

92 ajuba iNterNatiONal ajuba.net Indus.-Specific Svcs. bp

93 reksOft reksoft.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. bp

94 DatrOse datrose.com HR Mgmt. mC

95 ClutCh grOup clutchgroup.com Legal mC

96 Qx qxltd.com Health Care mC

97 gp sOlutiONs gpsolutions.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. Cr

98 sam sOlutiONs sam-solutions.com IT & Comm. Mgmt. mC

99 CrystelCall crystelcall.com CRM mC

100 ags health agshealth.com Health Care Cr

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These days, anyone who outsources and gets

nothing more than low-skill, inexpensive

labor is arguably living in a time warp.

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The flexibility that comes with outsourcing can mean a company’s back-office operations stay right-sized, no matter how quickly or dra-matically change comes to the industry. Health care in the U.S. provides a salient example. Changes flowing from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are driving hospitals and physician groups to adapt more rapidly than many were built to do. Converting thousands of records from paper to electronic files isn’t anything a small clerical staff can handle on top of an already heavy workload. To get the expertise and scale these companies need, outsourcing is often a must.

Industry consolidation in the wake of the ACA is posing other types of challenges. Hospitals are finding their billing departments lack sufficient manpower and expertise to efficiently process bills for all the physician groups they’re acquiring in today’s race for competitive advantage.

Even processing routine receivables is no longer business-as-usual for health care provid-ers. Most are used to dealing primarily with private insurers and government payers. Now they’re treating more and more patients who

have high deductibles—so high they might owe $10,000 or more after a hospital stay.

“Hospitals cannot afford to write off those patient balances anymore,” says Tony Mira, CEO of MiraMed, a Jackson, Mich.-based provider of back-office services for health care organizations. “They need to have a program to help resolve self-pay portions. That requires expert services.”

In this challenging environment, MiraMed is equipping hospitals and physician groups with tools needed to bill and collect on services rendered. The company assesses each client’s strengths and weaknesses, then customizes a solution to plug the holes.

Fixes vary. One client might utilize MiraMed’s back-office support in India or the Philippines, where trained staffers make sure procedures are coded properly on bills and work directly with insurers to see that those bills get paid promptly. Another might need well-trained, polite professionals at a domestic call center to contact patients and work out payment plans.

Results show the approach is working. By

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partnering with MiraMed to handle 120,000 patient accounts worth $70 million, one 400-bed hospital increased its revenue from private-pay accounts by 25%. Besides accelerating pay-ment rates, this solution has also slashed the number of accounts sent to collections, reducing vendor costs and helping to repair the hospital’s collections-related public relations problem.

SOCIALLY ReSpONSIBLeAt times, outsourcing has required careful management to avoid perceptions that out-sourcers might be shortchanging local workers by sending jobs elsewhere. But outsourcing is increasingly being viewed very differently—as an important component of corporate social responsibility programs.

Appreciating how outsourcing can improve workers’ lives isn’t a public relations spin move. It’s a concept social welfare organizations have embraced. The New York City-based Rockefeller Foundation, for instance, sees outsourcing—es-pecially jobs in information and communications technology (ICT)—as key to its new anti-poverty

Digital Jobs Africa initiative, which aims to impact one million lives in six African nations by helping prepare disadvantaged youth for tomorrow’s jobs.

The social merits of outsourcing are starting to be appreciated. Experts predict more com-panies will soon outsource in Africa to advance their corporate responsibility goals, while also enhancing their bottom lines. One niche gaining momentum, “rural sourcing,” involves working with resource centers in underdeveloped loca-tions, such as Native American reservations in the U.S., or remote parts of India.

“This is a highly utilized recent trend,” Hamill says. “Outsourcing service providers are finding available skills at a reasonable cost in rural ar-eas—even if they have to make an investment in improving infrastructure and providing training.”

Sometimes companies commit to doing business in a region specifically to help raise the health, education, or living standards for locals, while also advancing their own business interests. When these types of measurable social goals figure prominently in an outsourc-ing program, the practice qualifies as “impact

“Companies are looking

to use outsourcing

as a driver for their growth and transfor-

mation.” —Jagdish dalal

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sourcing,” which can help companies achieve their goals of being good corporate citizens on a global scale.

Finding business solutions through social re-sponsibility can be done worldwide, it turns out, with the right partnerships. That’s especially true when a service provider heeds international standards and expands opportunities for its workers. And it can be as simple as finding the right organization to manage properties.

To keep their facilities running smoothly, Hewlett-Packard, Citigroup, and Heinz, to name three, are finding a sound alternative to relying on a hodgepodge of contractors who point fingers at each other when problems arise. They’re going instead with ISS, a Copenhagen-based provider of facility services in more than 50 countries.

With 530,000 employees and a 113-year track record, ISS offers a single point of contact for a range of services including property maintenance, cleaning, catering, and security. Through its Integrated Facility Services (IFS) option, everyone from the facility manager to the dishwasher can be an ISS employee—not a subcontractor—which makes ISS unique in its industry.

For clients, bundling ISS services saves on costs as well as headaches. It also burnishes social responsibility credentials; ISS employs a diverse cross-section of local workers, who in 2013 received an average of 13.5 hours of training in areas from technical skills to foreign languages, to management.

“We are able to facilitate the right to work in a way only a few other global companies can,” says ISS CEO Jeff Gravenhorst. “We do this by offering employment and opportunities in par-ticular to people with few documented skills and qualifications, and limited options for establish-ing themselves in the labor market.”

Service providers are also delivering more on the cybersecurity front. Their clients want verification that vendors are following best practices to protect sensitive information. At last year’s Outsourcing World Summit®, 54% of attendees said they have a supplier security certification program in place. Another 19% said they plan to implement one. And 71% said security was a top-five priority for their company in 2013.

Companies are tracking security issues in part to make sure shifting workplace habits don’t lead to problems. Potential for employee carelessness, coupled with policies allowing

workers to “bring your own device” to work, led some surveyed respondents to cite the need for vigilance against malware threats and cyber- attacks. Some also said they assess data pro-tection safeguards and privacy factors before using cloud-based technologies.

CLeARING The WAYAs security certification for suppliers becomes the norm, it’s helping clear the way for more cloud-based outsourcing contracts. This is a trend to watch in coming years, experts say, as companies discover ways to apply the power of cloud technology, which can connect scores of workers in real time and analyze massive amounts of data.

Companies are also looking forward by incorporating service providers into their own planning. Because supporting plans for growth is the No. 1 reason companies outsource ser-vices, it makes sense to review scenarios and possibilities with partners who can assess the downstream implications.

Such high levels of trust don’t crop up over-night, but service providers are earning clients’ confidence over time. Survey data show compa-nies are expanding relationships with those they trust. Last year, 39% said they’d been bundling more services with fewer providers in the prior 12 months, while 27% said they’d been diversi-fying among multiple providers.

Strategic usage of outsourcing is helping organizations overcome roadblocks to their goals, whether in areas of growth or regulatory compli-ance. Health care providers, for instance, are find-ing that transitioning to electronic health records is creating bottlenecks in processing accounts.

One large health system, with hundreds of millions of dollars in receivables, opted to focus on resolving outstanding accounts, rather than converting them to electronic records. It hired MiraMed to get the job done.

“We put several hundred people on that proj-ect to wind it down as quickly as possible,” Mira says. “The health system’s employees could then focus on training” to manage electronic records for ongoing and future accounts.

Innovation comes by soliciting input from these trusted teams on topics that range from optimizing distribution to delivery timetables. It’s not uncommon for a high-value service provider to serve on its clients’ advisory boards. Through these channels, they can help drive

Outsourcing is proving

adaptable in areas where firms need access to particular

skills but can’t predict at what

scale they’ll need that support.

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innovation in their clients’ pipelines. When it comes to outsourcing, organizations

are only as flexible as their partners. Teaming up with specialists can pay dividends for those who need increased flexibility.

Concentrix is a business services company that provides a holistic approach to customer engagement. Combined with deep domain expertise in technology and process innovations, this approach adds up to a long and impressive list of unique solutions. Its $1.2 billion acquisi-tion of IBM’s customer-care business earlier this year provides an even greater level of scale and industry-specific expertise to Concentrix and its clients.

“Our clients are seeing high-value returns that are enabled by our innovative technology, analyt-ics, and service solutions,” says Jyllene Miller, senior vice president for global client and market engagement strategy. “We help clients keep pace with the increasing demands of global customers. They find we’re extremely nimble and entrepre-neurial in our approach, which delivers high-value business impact.”

In some cases, service providers are now do-ing their own research and passing on practical insights to clients. ISS, for one, has turned its global headquarters in Copenhagen into an in-novation laboratory, where cutting-edge systems get designed and tested. One current program is testing the automation of work orders to see if the number of users of a facility, such as a particular elevator, can be used to accurately forecast when maintenance will be needed.

Experts expect companies will rely more on outsourced contracts in the years ahead as firms keep deriving greater value from these working relationships. Outsourcing is proving immensely adaptable for cyclical industries, seasonal businesses, and other areas where firms need access to particular skills but can’t necessarily predict far in advance the scale at which they’ll need that support.

In the meantime, companies of all sizes are continuing to mine relationships for latent value that many find in the outsourcing arena. As long as they continue to find gems for business growth, they’re sure to keep coming back. ●

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There is strength in numbers. People come together for a common cause because they believe strong partnerships produce better results. Power-ful business partnerships with a shared vision build market leaders and help them stay on top.

As a high-value business services company, Concen-trix is dedicated to helping its clients acquire, support, and expand their customer relationships by optimizing their customer ecosystems. We help inspire customer loy-alty, while driving growth and market leadership. Concentrix applies ana-lytics, technology innovation, and process optimization to customer engagement as well as back-office operations.

“Our clients are seeing high-value business outcomes, thanks to our ability to create innovative solutions that im-prove our clients’ engagement with their customers,” notes Jyllene Miller, Senior Vice President for Global Client and Market Engagement Strategy. “We help our clients design and deliver a customer experience that is aligned with their unique brand and values.”

Our global footprint offers services and solutions in 36 countries and 50+ languages, supported by over 45,000

award-winning staff. Nimble and entrepreneurial in our approach to client engagement, Concentrix has a relentless focus on our clients’ suc-cess and market leadership. Partner-ing with experts has its benefits. ●A Business Services Company

Concentrix partners with clients to create value and differentiation.

The Power of Partnerships

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