GBS World News | Week 3 | August 2021

Indian CX and digital outsourcing leader, Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd., has sold its healthcare services arm to Baring Private Equity Asia at a sale value of US$1,2 billion. The transaction is planned to be wrapped up in 90 days, where all client contracts, employees, and assets will be transferred to the new owner. The group’s healthcare services vertical employs over 20,000 workers across India, Philippines, the U.S., and Jamaica, generating US$400 million in revenue over the 2020/2021 financial year.

In European news, French multinational IT service and consulting company, Atos, has been positioned as a leader in its Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services by Gartner. Atos attained this achievement through the recognition of its completeness of vision and ability to execute. The report sources and compares the strengths, weaknesses, vision, and performance of a landscape of service providers within a specific marketing technology space.

Discovery Inc., a U.S. multinational mass media company, has deployed Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) machine learning (ML) solution, Amazon Personalize, in its recently launched discovery+ platform, to optimize user experience (UX). discovery+ is a direct-to-consumer streaming service, featuring television series, movies, and original programming. The technology provides ML-powered recommendations, ensuring a customized streaming experience for the user, as well as increasing user engagement.

Across the border in Canada, Browze, an online e-commerce platform for curated lifestyle products, has been named the winner of the Silver Stevie Award in the Customer Service Department of the Year category in the 18th Annual International Business Awards. The identification of friction points in the customer journey, the development of progressive customer service policies and procedures, and the scaling of the customer service department were Browze’s main success factors in attaining the globally-recognized business award, according to its CEO and founder, Izzy Rosenzweig.

The job market is set to receive a boost in Durban, South Africa, as global consultancy and CX leader, Webhelp, is opening its first site in the coastal city, creating over 300 new jobs. This adds to Webhelp’s South African delivery site portfolio, where it has sites in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Starting with just 1,400 employees, Webhelp has grown its South African division to 4,000 employees and doubling its revenue.

In general news, new data has been released illustrating how businesses have successfully adapted to changing needs of customers derived from key learnings during the COVID-19 pandemic, which will impact commercial relationships going forward, according to ONR, a Canadian CX leader. Loyalty will be a major CX factor going forward, along with changing customer behaviours based on concerns relating to health and wellness, not only in the products purchased, but also in the service experience for retailing and purchase.

On the international front, the global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market will reach US$215,9 billion by 2026, according to a study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc. The 2020 global BPO valuation was US$161,9 billion, meaning the global BPO market will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2% over the analysis period. The U.S. has the largest share of the global BPO market, followed by China.