Industry news

Atos and Capita have been awarded a contract by the Department for Work and Pensions to test the eligibility of disabled persons for benefits in a contract worth more than £540 million.

The contract will cover 5 years and cover three regional areas separately. The assessments for health and disability will be for the newly introduced Personal Independence Payments (PIP) system, replacing the Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

The government are aiming to cut disability expenditure by 20 percent with a estimated half a million expected to lose claims.

The Disability Rights UK spokesman said: “A lot of people blame Atos but they need to remember it is working within government guidelines. Their anger should be directed toward the DWP.”

In the wake of recent publicised failures in compliance and quality by well-known brands it is becoming more difficult to achieve sales via the contact centre and comply with various industry regulations. There are major ramifications for organisations not acting in the appropriate way, resulting in unwelcome press attention, hefty financial penalties or simply damage to your brand resulting in the dissatisfaction and loss of customers.

So when you choose to outsource your ‘customer contact’, how can you assess whether your partner has the right checks and balances in place to ensure on-going compliance, but not at the expense of commercial goals.

Lifting the lid - Achieving maximum sales compliantly

After short-listing suppliers with the necessary experience and credentials to do the job, part of the due diligence should also focus on lifting the lid of what goes on behind the scenes - in particular you should undertake a detailed review of how compliance, quality and performance are collectively managed.

Of course in highly regulated industries such as financial services or telcos, you need to ensure that the necessary scripting is employed so that you stay within the law, and that you can retrospectively prove that you are following industry guidelines. However, even if you are fully compliant, shortfalls in quality and performance improvement can dent your overall sales targets and reduce customer retention.

How is quality managed – paper based or automated?

Where many outsourcers fail is how they internally manage their compliance and QA processes. One of the biggest problems, is that some of the systems used for measuring quality and individual agent performance are still quite antiquated, relying on paper-based score cards to assess individual agents. These manual approaches are time-consuming and lead to delays in establishing true performance results, so by the time that reports are produced and acted upon you may have already lost the gains that any corrective action could have produced, and campaign productivity is compromised. Delays in the timely launch of campaigns lead to loss of revenue, client dissatisfaction and competitive disadvantage.

What is often missing is the ability to produce meaningful data quickly and distribute this to the key people that can address the quality issues in real-time. If you can’t measure it then you can’t manage it. You therefore need to ask a potential outsourcer how quality issues are flagged and measured, who is responsible for making improvements, whether these can be done in real-time, and how the results are then fed back into the business to improve on-going and future performance.

A 360 degree approach – using compliance tools to improve performance and customer service.

Once a quality issue has been identified, perhaps ‘mis-selling’ by an agent or you recognise that elements of a script need modifying, there should also be a structured chain of command in place to take the appropriate action. Quality improvements will only happen if you have a ‘360 degree approach’ that involves all the necessary departments in the QA process – Training, Team Leaders, Compliance Officers, HR and also senior management. In our experience, there is too much reliance on the Team Leader to identify and fix quality issues which in many cases simply fall into a black hole with poor follow up. However, by providing better visibility of QA information, across all departments, it becomes it easier and faster for everyone to work together to improve quality.

Not all scripts produce best results first time, first call, therefore it is vital that you work with a partner who has the ability to proactively manage compliance, performance and scripting.

Align QA with business goals

Not only should the outsourcer tick all the compliance boxes, they should also have the capability to highlight where agents are missing out certain procedures that will prevent a sale or transaction being completed. For example in the claims management industry the ‘pack-back’ rate measures when an application pack is returned because the application has not been filled in properly or lacks some pertinent information. Whilst the original conversation between the agent and the customer may have been fully compliant, (for instance voicing any obligatory disclosures), you also need a system that can create an alert when procedures are overlooked or correct data is not captured. An early warning system means you can take any remedial action immediately, so agents do not repeat their mistakes and lose more potential business and sales opportunities are not missed in the future.

No margin for error

Finding a balance between compliance and commercial success is much more achievable if you have the right quality systems and procedures in place. If you want to get greater value from your outsourcing relationship then find a partner that will get the most out of their time and resources. An extra sale an hour can make a huge difference on your cost of acquisition, so if they can harness and act on QA data fast, there will be no margin for error.

Points to consider when selecting an outsourcer

- How are compliance/quality issues flagged? Do scripts have ‘mandatory fields’?

- How quickly can they identify and resolve compliance, performance and quality issues?

- What type of QA reporting is available – is it automated? Can reports be provided in any format?

- Is QA information available in real-time to multiple departments?

- Is there a standardised and holistic approach to quality & performance improvement?

- Is QA information presented in a meaningful way?

Cloud Compliance Meeting

12th July

Cloud services and platforms have been employed within business for some time, particularly within the outsourcing sector. With many companies feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, the cloud is becoming increasingly attractive for businesses looking for cost-savings.

This seminar continued on from a series of NOA cloud focused seminars which seek to identify best practices and address concerns and questions regarding the technology. This cloud special interest seminar was chaired by Andy Rogers, NOA Board Member, and Natalie Donovan, IT professional support lawyer at Slaughter and May, and focused on the importance of compliance in cloud contracts.

The Cloud Compliance Meeting began with a detailing of the expansion of cloud services within the business market by Dr Bharat Vagadia, NOA Board Director. The prominence of cloud services in big business has been apparent over the last couple of years, however the deployment of the cloud is now being seen in other areas. A recent Microsoft survey, (SME Cloud Adoption Study 2011) of 3000 SMEs in 16 countries showed that nearly 40 percent of SME’s are now buying cloud services. This is an increase of a third from 2010, while a 2012 IBM study recorded that two thirds of businesses have or intend to implement cloud services.

The IBM study highlighted the need for agility in cloud deployment and predicted that in three years, 1 trillion cloud-ready devices would exist, allowing for increased mobility.

The Microsoft SME survey predicted that cloud adoption by SMEs will nearly double over the next three years. The survey also identified that the larger the business, the more likely it was to adopt cloud services.

The meeting looked at recent developments in cloud technology including an increased focus on scalability, which goes against the past trend of providers offering one-size-fits all approach to delivering cloud service packages.

The survey also looked at the practical concerns surrounding the cloud and the additional infrastructure that is required. 82 percent of surveyed cloud users said that it would be ‘critical’ to have local support cloud services.

The meeting covered the main reasons for cloud adoption with cost and flexibility ranking as the most prevalent reasons for employing cloud services. Standardisation of service was also identified as a key caveat in attracting SMEs to employing cloud services despite the growing demand for scalability within the service.

The meeting addressed key concerns, including the scale of impact disruption of internet services could have on the use of cloud and how precautions and safeguards could be established to diminish such risk. Future trends were also addressed by the special interest group and identified mobile applications and simplification of software as key areas of development for cloud services.

Natalie Donovan, Slaughter and May, detailed the risks associated with cloud services. Natalie described how cloud services and platforms represent a relatively new market, and as such new models exist, in regard to creating standardised contracts. Natalie described how: “At this stage early procurement is far away from being fully optimised.” Most current contracts are first generation. The relative immaturity of the cloud market is reflected in the basic nature of the current common contracts that are being employed. The attractions for using basic contracts were explained, with the ability to implement a speedy procurement ranking highly.

The meeting identified that a new legal approach was needed when looking at cloud compliance. In her presentation Natalie demonstrated the need to focus on the key issues while employing the correct contract base. A new legal contract approach should be carried out alongside a new procurement approach which should provide tending based on user reviews.

Quality of service, changes of service and security remain the major issues in employing cloud services and in standardising cloud contracts.

The meeting covered the termination of cloud services and the best practice in regard to exit strategies. Natalie spoke on the importance of exit assistance and the need for suspension and termination clauses built into the contract.

Data regulation was also identified as an area of importance with the need to understand the laws surrounding data privacy in cloud services. A new cloud approach should be undertaken which focuses on securing the key issues, such as security while trying to avoid the undermining of commercial benefits, such as agility.

At this early stage in cloud service employment, uses are wary of uploading data to the platform because of the perceived security risks involved.

While risk was identified as not being inherently negative, efforts should be made to find the right level of risk based on the circumstances.

The meeting closed with a roundtable discussion on who has the most insight into IT services, whether SMEs or big businesses. The meeting identified that SMEs and big businesses have different requirements in regard to cloud services, and that the SME cloud market is rapidly opening up to the employment of cloud technology, however contracts, understanding of the service and compliance still need to develop.

Please visit www.NOA.co.uk for the full set of slides from this event.

Professional Outsourcing magazine has been appointed to the advisory board of the new Centre for Global Sourcing and Services at Loughborough University School of Business and Economics, and has also been chosen as media partner for the new centre.

The centre, led by Professor Ilan Oshri, will carry out independent research into key trends across areas such as captive shared services, outsourcing, offshoring and back-sourcing, with the aim of improving sourcing practice through ongoing engagement with both managers and policy-makers.

Managing Editor Chris Middleton said: "I'm delighted that Professional Outsourcing has been appointed to the advisory board and chosen as media partner for a brand new research centre at one of the UK's leading academic institutions. This magazine is founded on the principles of providing in-depth, independent research, expert analysis and thought leadership - aims that we share with Loughborough University School of Business and Economics. We look forward to working with the Centre for Global Sourcing and Services to bring our readers the very latest research from some of the leading academics in the field."

Professor Oshri said: "In many ways, this is a perfect time to launch a research centre on global sourcing of IT and business services. With mounting reports that many organisations struggle with their outsourcing and offshoring engagements, the unprecedented growth in shared service investments and - on the other hand - recent reports about significant back-sourcing, it has become imperative to understand the effects of such trends on management practices, policy making and society."

Oshri added: "Partnering with Professional Outsourcing is key to achieving the research centre's key objectives. First and foremost, we will work closely with the editorial team of Professional Outsourcing to disseminate the results of our independent research and achieve a high impact on the magazine's broad readership. At the same time, we will be looking for valuable input from the magazine and its readership about contemporary and long-term trends in the sourcing domain that will guide our research agenda."

The Centre draws upon an outstanding network of researchers from the School of Business and Economics, London School of Economics, Warwick Business School, Bath University and Said Business School

www.professionaloutsourcingmagazine.net

The first privately run NHS hospital, Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, has claimed that waiting times, cost savings and care have all improved under the new management.

The Hospital has been run by the private company Circle since February over a 10-year contract.

The hospital prior to the takeover had been identified as failing to offer effective clinical care as well as being financially unviable.

Circle chief executive Ali Parsa described how the hospital had been improved. “You let the doctors and nurses and the healthcare professionals - who know the patient best and who know their services best - and let them take charge.”

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Staff at Atos IT have voted to strike over pay. 89 percent of Atos IT workers and 95 percent of healthcare workers of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) voted against below-inflation pay offers.

In rejecting the new pay offers PCS Atos members then voted in favour of a strike. The action could impact on a range of current projects including BBC technological support, MoT test center facilities and backup services for the Welsh Assembly.

The strike action could take place as soon as the next few weeks according to the PCS. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said : "Atos is desperate to bolster its damaged image by its association with the Olympic spirit of hard work and success, but that the reality is that it makes its profits on the backs of its low-paid staff and from taxpayer handouts.”

Eric Van Der Kleij, the outgoing chief executive of Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO), has become an advisor to the Canary Wharf Group.

The move comes as the development group seeks to enhance Canary Wharf’s offering, and increase the links between financial and professional services in the area, as they seek to attract new businesses and increased investment.

Sir George Iacobescu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canary Wharf Group, said: "We welcome Eric's expertise on to the team. He will help us to create new, customised business locations, fused with technology and an attractive lifestyle, that aim to match exactly what businesses will require twenty or thirty years into the future".

Microsoft has announced the closure of its acquisition deal with Perceptive Pixel (PPI).

In buying PPI Microsoft has added the company’s expertise in multi-touch large-scale displays to its roster of services and enhancing Microsoft’s presentation and collaboration products.

The deal was announced back in July and comes as Microsoft seeks to make large-screen touch displays the norm in workplaces.

Over the last few days and the weekend, reports have emerged demonstrating that digital communications have been unable to cope with the rise in users.

On Saturdays the BBC suffered technical difficulties with GPS services due to overloaded communication networks, including reports of twitter use being responsible.

Reuters quoted an International Olympic Committee as saying “if it's not an urgent, urgent one, please kind of take it easy” In reference to Twitter use.

HP have announced the release of new services from its Enterprise Services department, aimed at helping clients to enhance customer satisfaction and increase revenue.

The new Customer Engagement Management (CEM) services are designed to deliver greater customer experiences for clients across a range of mobile devices, as well as social media.

Danila Meirlaen, vice president, Business Process Outsourcing at HP, said in improving the customer experience: “HP consultants help drive this transformation based on our deep heritage of contact-center operations, industry experience and global presence, assisting clients so they can increase revenues and customer satisfaction.”