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Intelenet acquires service arm of UK transport company
Intelenet, controlled by the US private equity group Blackstone, has announced today that it has acquired the back office operations of the UK transport company FirstGroup.
The Indian BPO firm acquired the service arm, FirstInfo, for £45m. Intelenet will now be responsible for customer management, ticket issuing and back-office processing across rail franchises including FirstCapitalConnect, First ScotRail and First Great Western.
The deal, which was formally concluded on the 10th January 2010, sees Intelenet take over FirstInfo’s two UK contact centres in Fort William and Plymouth. It also supports the company’s expansion in the UK and the aim to increase FirstInfo’s UK employees from 300 up to 2,000 in two years.
Belen Martinez, First’s rail division business development director, commented: “It will be business as usual and the new contract with Intelenet will enable First to improve services to customers.
“Intelenet specialises in the delivery of contact centre services and there will be investments in new technology and processes at the centres. We will work closely with Intelenet over the coming months to improve service.”
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Offloading internal contact centres drives significant benefits, says report
Contact centre business transformation is a viable option to generate immediate and significant cost savings, according a Datamonitor whitepaper.
The transformation practice involves an enterprise-outsourcer partnership with the express purpose of improving CRM-related business performance whilst reducing risk and costs.
According to Datamonitor and Teleperformance, who commissioned the report, transformation can be achieved by re-engineering processes and transferring contact centre facilities to the outsourcer.
Peter Ryan, lead analyst for call centres and BPO at Datamonitor, comments, “In light of escalating costs and service demands we are seeing a focus on new and innovative contact centre operating models. Business Transformation has emerged as a viable option to generate large and immediate cost savings.”
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Liverpool Council spends £26m on school ICT
Liverpool City Council has announced it is set to receive funding after government approval was granted for its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) plans.
“Out of the £350m being spent on the BSF project, over £26m will be on IT, around 7.3 per cent of the overall BSF spend, ” a spokesperson for the council said.
The initiative, which forms part of the BSF’s sixth wave of spending, will include the provision of ICT services at 24 secondary schools in Liverpool, due to start in 2013 until 2017.
The council is said to be currently seeking a private sector partner to participate and invest in the Public Private Partnership vehicle, GC News has reported.
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Indian Ministry of Finance signs outsourcing contract with Wipro
The Financial Intelligence Unit India, part of the Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance, has signed an IT outsourcing contract with Wipro Infotech. The project is due to be completed in 24 months with a further service period of 36 months.
As part of the deal, Wipro will manage the Unit’s IT in a bid to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its collection, analysis and dissemination of financial information and highlights the Government’s intentions to use technology to bring efficiency into analysis of data.
Mr Arun Goyal, director of Financial Intelligence Unit India, said: “We are keen on timely implementation of the Project as it will significantly enhance capabilities to collect financial information from various reporting entities, analyse it and disseminate actionable information to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”
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Housing Associations outsource to Virgin Media Business
Midlands-based Accord and Ashram Housing Associations have signed a contact centre and network deal with the newly rebranded Virgin Media Business.
It is hoped the new arrangement will help the Associations deal with its increasingly large call volumes, now up to 6,000 a month.
The network will enable the Associations to direct all branch enquiries through its new Customer First Centre.
“Given the growth and expansion of our housing portfolio in the last five years, our contact points had grown to a number that our residents found confusing,” said Ian Tinsley, Information Systems Manger at Accord.
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