Business Process Outsourcing is complicated at best, especially when the provider’s reach is global. Requirements might include juggling clients in any vertical industry imaginable, matching the right talent to specialized assignments, or scaling to enable a client’s on-demand staffing during peak periods. Mix in multiple languages and time zones and communications media such as voice or chat. Add in the need for stringent data security and best-in-class coaching. All of this goes with the territory.
The future of work
Taking customer experience and back-office services to a whole new level. For Teleperformance, the territory is huge -- operations in more than 80 countries. Agents literally serve customers the world over. A digital solution based on Citrix technology helps the company deliver a laundry list of omnichannel services. Thanks to Citrix and other solutions in the company’s arsenal, Teleperformance has taken business process outsourcing to the next level.
The company’s main imperative is to find talent for omnichannel customer services -- services facilitated by whatever electronic or digital channels are required by clients. The list includes voice, chat, email, electronic media, new digital channels, or even simultaneous interpretation. Citrix technology not only enables the agents on assignments, but also, front office staff and administrative users at Teleperformance itself. Now, anyone can securely work from anywhere.
Teleperformance Global Executive Vice President of Infrastructure and Chief Information Officer for Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean, Jose Guereque, explains his company’s vision, “Teleperformance is a socially responsible company. Our Citrix digital technology allows us to support a sustainable hybrid work model that serves us well -- now and into the future.” He adds, “Now, we can conduct global searches and actually recruit, hire, train and coach talent anywhere. We create new jobs in areas of the world in which economic downturn has caused high unemployment and fewer professional jobs to be available.” In fact, Teleperformance added 50,000 new jobs in 2020, and used Citrix technology to move over 220,000 existing employees to work-at-home in just than two months during the global health crisis.
“We are a people-oriented company, intent on remotely replicating the same processes we have embraced in our brick-and-mortar offices. Even with remote employees, our technology enables regular, face-to-face interactions and coaching with supervisors to ensure that we deliver best-in-class services,” summarizes Guereque.
Real-life scenarios tell the story: Mexico
Guereque lives in Monterrey, Mexico, a large city. There, Teleperformance agents manage not only Spanish language campaigns, but also U.S. and Canada-based English language initiatives.
“The Monterrey talent pool is comprised of many who have lived or studied outside of Mexico and are proficient in English. But, there are many others spread out around the country in small cities or villages” he states, “Our company has enabled them to work in a market in which they may not have otherwise found work. Citrix technology has allowed us to give these top-notch agents more options, including remote work, on-demand assignments, and seasonal or part-time campaigns.”
Employee retention is another story
Customer Service is a business that naturally sees a great deal of attrition. Teleperformance works hard to retain good agents. Lance Brown, Executive Vice President of Network, Telecommunications, and Architecture, says, “With Citrix, we can move a worker whose assignment on one company’s campaign has ended to another system to work on another client’s project,” he says. “It’s simple because we do it remotely; it’s fast because we can quickly get people up and running on any device; and it’s safer thanks to the built-in security in Citrix.”
A tale of travel in the Philippines
In many cities around the world, it might take an agent an hour and a half or two hours to travel to a physical work location due to traffic or mass transit issues. The Philippines is a case in point. Those who prefer the camaraderie of a group work environment can still make the trip and use the Citrix desktop, while others can enjoy the flexibility of working remotely with the same virtual technology.
An industry-related example
“A tourist may find himself in a hospital in a foreign country. Perhaps he is in India, but he doesn’t speak Hindi,” Guereque explains. “Teleperformance can assign a native Hindi speaker to simultaneously interpret the clinician’s comments. For that matter, the same kind of service can be offered to someone in need of legal assistance."
Brown elaborates, “Our business is all about accelerating time to market. Communications of all types drive our clients’ businesses. With Citrix, we can do that efficiently and effectively.”
Teleperformance Cloud Campus ensures operational excellence
Teleperformance Cloud Campus is a new remote work model that delivers next-generation customer experience (CX) services. The Cloud Campus framework includes a physical or virtual command center, or Cloud Campus Hub, that centralizes employee support services like supervisors, HR and IT. This innovative model facilitates extensive digital hiring practices to virtually recruit, interview, and hire more talented candidates. Cloud Campus also provides the right mix of technology, analytics, and agent support tools to optimize team performance. The platform is based on highly secure technology, protocols, and policies that protect sensitive customer data. Cloud Campus allows remote teams to remain connected, engaged, and productive. Guereque says, “We deliver the Cloud Campus applications through Citrix.”
“By the time a new or reallocated worker logs on, we've already updated a new, tailored image on the back end. That agent can immediately, easily, and remotely access information about a specific assignment,” Brown notes. “That is one of the reasons Cloud Campus platform has caused an increase in satisfaction scores from both agents and employees.”
The COVID-19 business disruption accelerated migration to remote work
A global strategy was in place before the global COVID-19 crisis hit. “We already had a three-year plan to deliver Citrix to our own employees, as well as to 40,000 agents,” Brown explains. “With the onset of COVID-19, we had to accelerate that timeline to less than eight weeks.”
“Before the pandemic, less than 10% of the workforce was working remotely. By March, we had migrated more than 80%,” Guereque states. “Citrix enabled us to speed up that timeline. Now, every single employee has the capability to work from home if need be.”
Hybrid work is here to stay
The business disruption that occurred due to the pandemic made one thing abundantly clear: that hybrid work – a combination of working from anywhere or working in a brick-and- mortar office – will be the way forward at Teleperformance. “Hybrid work is not just a pandemic play,” Guereque says. “It will be a permanent and ongoing model for us. Citrix will be a key technology partner in making it happen.”
The future of work in IT
A foundation of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix ADC
The Teleperformance digital solution is comprised of two key Citrix components. The first is Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, a component of Citrix Workspace that allows users to easily and securely access the systems, apps, and information needed to do day-to-day work. With this solution, employees or agents can find what they need in one unified virtual desktop. Citrix ADC is an application delivery controller that provides the best possible app experience for users. It delivers visibility and the simplicity of a single code base.
Brown notes, “With Citrix, we can control everything. Our virtual environment is faster because people can work in different ways – embracing everything from a bring your own device (BYOD) program to thin clients.” He adds, “Sensitive information is protected because security is baked-in to Citrix.”
Security that protects workers but doesn’t stop progress
With Citrix, IT can dynamically apply security policies that detect anomalies in user behavior that might signal threats. What’s more, sensitive data lives in the data center rather than on the actual device itself, so proprietary information always is protected -- even if a device is lost or stolen. Yet with Citrix, this stringent security is transparent to the user.
A hybrid cloud strategy enables global flexibility
Teleperformance has a hybrid cloud environment. “Our goal is to constantly revisit and reevaluate the best digital IT architecture for us and continue to standardize as much as possible,” notes Guereque. “Hyper convergence is one of the technologies that really enables our hybrid cloud. This means we can have on-premises infrastructure and scale out our public cloud based on the particular delivery model or usage of tools.”
Brown adds, “In the US, for example, we leverage an on-premises environment and on cloud. Especially for retail clients, this gives us the ability to scale up immediately when their needs increase. With our reliance on Microsoft technology at Teleperformance and the fact that Citrix had a long-standing relationship with them as a business partner, Azure was a natural choice.”
“Another thing is speed,” Brown adds. “We now have thousands of LOBs, each with its own golden image,” he relates. “We can easily make changes through Citrix. At any time, we simply update one of the virtual machines with the right image. The process is automated and remote, so admins do not need to physically touch devices,” he explains.
”Imagine that a client that wants us to implement new software and the client’s system can only be shut down at midnight on Sunday and it must be back up and running seven hours later,” he notes. “With Citrix, we update the customer’s golden image and the job is done in a matter of hours. In the past, it would have required a week.”
Reducing the cost of endpoints
Citrix also has enabled Teleperformance to significantly reduce the cost of the devices used by workers and agents. With Citrix virtual technology, expensive or sophisticated devices no longer are needed.
The next chapter
Guereque not only sees standardizing on Citrix as an important next step, but he also envisions new areas in which agents will add value through more personal interactions. “Video services may become a very interesting area,” he muses. “We also anticipate dealing with more different kinds of mobile devices, and a labor force that commutes between a remote environment and brick-and-mortar as needed.”
Brown concludes, “Our digital technology backbone enables us to be bullish and meet very high service standards. You can rest assured that we see the value in Citrix technology. We have invested in 120,000 licenses!”
