Concentrix

Concentrix,^[2] a wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation^[3] (NYSE: SNX)since 2006, is a leading business services company.^[4] Its parent, SYNNEX sits at number 212 on the Fortune 500 listing.^[5] Concentrix is headquartered in Fremont, CA. Concentrix has over 90,000 staff that deliver solutions and services in 40+ languages from over 125 delivery centers on six continents, Concentrix is in 10 industries: Automotive, Banking and Financial Services, Consumer Electronics, Energy and Public Sector, Healthcare Services, Insurance, Media and Communications, Retail and eCommerce, Technology, and Travel, Transportation and Tourism.^[6]

History and Acquisitions

Although Concentrix was founded in 1991, its heritage can be traced back to 1973 to its insurance administration business solutions and services which were acquired in 2013 by Concentrix from IBM. ^[7] Concentrix has grown through multiple acquisitions bringing on board eight companies since 2006. Two of the acquisitions that are especially notable include the IBM Worldwide Customer Care Services Business and the Minacs Group Pte.

IBM Worldwide Customer Care Services Business

With this asset purchase agreement on Sep 12, 2013, SYNNEX paid a purchase price of $505 million, consisting of approximately $430 million in cash and $75 million in SYNNEX common stock. Concentrix added 45,000 employees. The acquisition included adding over 300 clients delivering services in more than 40 languages through 50 delivery centers on six continents.^[8]

Minacs Group Pte

On Aug 2, 2016 SYNNEX announced completion of the acquisition of The Minacs Group Pte with closure on Sept 1, 2016. Concentrix added 20,000 staff across 35 global offices and brought expertise in marketing optimization, Internet of Things (IoT) and additional analytics capabilities.^[9]

Solutions

Concentrix has a global footprint in contact center outsourcing business. Its customer service solutions include core business processes in the following areas:

Industry-specific services

Customized business services for Telecommunications, Media and Utilities, Banking, Retail, Travel and Leisure, Healthcare and Insurance, Industrial and Technology, and the Public Sector.

Advanced analytics capabilities

Includes Voice of the Customer Analytics (VOCA) for unstructured content analysis, performance scorecards, call centre analytics, call volume forecasting, operational analytics, agent optimization; IVR analytics; web analytics customer life time value, revenue enhancement, and other analytics capabilities.

‘Digital First’ and multi-channel enablement

Voice, self-service, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), SMS, chat, mobile & smartphone support, web & social media, mail, fax and face-to-face integration (branch/store/office)

Technical and product support

Technical support, help desk, product activation, warranty service, service scheduling, and field support.

Collections

Recovery, fraud detection, and collections.

Sales

Lead generation, customer inquiry, promotions, multi-channel sales, product inquiry and demonstration, up-sell and cross-sell, negotiate and close, win-backs business-to-business sales support, and outbound notification.

Service

Account management, customer care, problem and dispute resolution, correspondence management, and billing management.

Marketing

Lead management, campaign management, list generation, customer segmentation, customer profitability, market segmentation, product profitability, channel performance, prospect analysis, market analysis, and business unit analysis

Concentrix runs these services as part of an integrated global delivery network with centers located on six continents. Concentrix supports multiple communication channels that include voice, chat, email, SMS, and social media.

Concentrix provides systems for administration of life and health insurance products, tools for front-office engagement and process and operations enhancement through analytics, consulting for transformation, market optimization tools for enhancing the end-to-end customer life cycle, and focus on market optimization tools, digitalization and automation that includes Internet of Things (IoT), and Telematics business solutions.

Certifications

Security certifications:

ISO 9001:2000

ISO 9001:2008

ISO 27001:2005

PCI DSS compliant Level 4

SAS70 Type II

HIPAA compliant

Controversies

In 2014, Concentrix won a £75 million contract from the UK's tax authority, the HMRC, to review two million tax credits claims for fraud and incorrect tax credit awards.^[10] Tax credits are a form of UK social welfare benefit paid out to parents and workers on low incomes.

By 2016, however, Concentrix was receiving heavy criticism from the cross-party parliamentary committee on welfare for incorrectly closing the claims of thousands of claimants, leaving them without money for essentials.^[11] In September 2016 the HMRC announced that it would not renew the contract, due to expire in 2017, although the Treasury has resisted calls for a full inquiry thus far.^[12] As a result of Concentrix' failings, thousands of claimants are also due to receive back-payments for incorrectly stopped claims.^[13]

References