Leveraging global reach, expertise and winning strategies, this BPO leader is adding unprecedented value to the outsourcing process
Written by Anne-Frances Hutchinson & Produced by Cory Shields
Difficult economic times can shake the healthiest business to the core. The rush to trim the bottom line often runs the risk of trimming real talent and shaving down the engine at the heart of every profit initiative – an organization’s core expertise. In the past decade, companies from a broad array of industries have increasingly turned to business process outsourcing (BPO) firms to help them streamline and save money, allowing them to direct their energies into the work they do best.
For 30 years, global consulting, technology and outsourcing firm Capgemini has been a valued business partner for some of the world’s top-tier companies. The French firm’s stateside BPO unit offers a comprehensive portfolio of BPO offerings to support a host of diverse industries, with expertise that encompasses finance and accounting, customer care and intelligence, procurement, assurance management (Sarbanes-Oxley compliance), human resources and knowledge process outsourcing services.
Capgemini’s approach to BPO is designed to add value through better operational performance. Their Rightshore® approach literally connects customers to the best location for their outsourcing endeavors. The strategy uses close collaboration to match the right resources to profitable business objectives, delivering superior, sustainable results at a competitive price.
More than 9,100 BPO professionals provide services to clients worldwide 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in 36 languages, from centers located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Guatemala, India, Poland, and the United States.
As CEO of BPO Americas David Poole puts it: “Our global reach allows us to choose the best locations that advance our clients’ business goals. We align cultural and business priorities and balance risk, cost and scalability to determine the best mix of locations for our clients’ needs.”
FINANCE & ACCOUNTING
From end-to-end solutions to process-specific services, Capgemini ‘s F&A offerings are designed to keep the back office running at optimum levels. “We have expertise in world-class processes and systems that not only will save companies money at the top line, but at the bottom line as well because we know how to do this better than anyone else out there,” Poole says.
End-to-end offerings, for example, may cover order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay, or accounting-to-reporting functions. Process-specific services include the full range of accounts payable and receivable procedures, and general accounting, as well as planning and performance management. Capgemini can also handle all aspects of T&E management, including helpdesk support for processing travel expense claims and credit card processing support. Capgemini’s management assurance support gives firms a way to meet compliance standards, including SOX and SAS 70 equivalent reporting, as well as entity level assessment and IT assessment.
“In a large company you might have 50 to 100 people doing all of these finance processes, while we have thousands of them out there who know how to do a lot more of them and how to scale better than any small division of your company. That’s a big part of what we do,” says Poole.
“By saving our customers money on the outsourcing and giving them world-class processes, we’re allowing them to focus on their core business. Every business requires finance and accounting, it’s a standard for any company. Companies need to focus on their products and innovation and what’s needed to sell it. We give companies the freedom to put their focus where it really needs to be,” he continues. F&A services cover a wide range of industries including financial services, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and retail.
Capgemini blends process expertise with deep business knowledge to deliver a value-added service they call Business Insight. It is exactly what the name conveys: leveraging a deep understanding of the kind of business a client company does and the way it does business to create and maintain success. Specific Business Insight processes include customer analysis, spend intelligence, audit forensics, revenue recovery and leakage prevention; ethical fraud testing and contract compliance.
When it comes to F&A support for global organizations, the numbers really add up: Capgemini works with over 30 companies on more than 20 different accounting systems and in 36 languages.
CUSTOMER CARE: A NEW VIEW
What good is a BPO provider that collects data and dumps it back into management’s lap with little cohesive analysis? Making the most of customer intelligence means deriving the right information from the data, and providing the tools and solutions to put those results into practice to achieve real results.
Capgemini is driven by business intelligence. To that end, they’ve developed a unique “Command and Control Center” model that centralizes data collection, analysis and measurement consistently across all geographical locations. This standardized process enables autonomous contact centers to act as a whole, enabling the business to get a better handle on the data they collect so they can use it effectively to provide a better customer experience. Capgemini remakes the typical call center model, reshaping each independent center into part of a complete value center that delivers not just true customer care, but better, more cost-effective call/contact center operations.
“Our Customer Care and Intelligence services do so much more than save money,” Poole points out. “We use the data and information gathered at our value centers and submit that intelligence back to the company. We provide the analytics and business intelligence to help companies develop world-class customer service organizations.” That closed loop feedback approach gives customers the data they need to boost customer loyalty, improve products and services, and create opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling.
Capgemini offers services across the BOP spectrum, including supply chain management, CRM, technical content management, knowledge process management, reference data management and procurement.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
COMPANY NAME: Capgemini Americas Business Process Outsourcing
PRESIDENT/CEO: David Poole
OPERATIONS: Present in more than 30 countries, Capgemini reported 2008 global revenues of EUR $8.7 billion (approximately USD $12.74 billion) and employs 90,000 people worldwide.
EMPLOYEES: 9,100 globally
www.us.capgemini.com
View Digital Corporate Profile of Capgemini in Manufacturing Digital January 2010