Talks about how technology trends are evolving in the outsourcing market

1. Outsourcing Time Traveler - To 2045 & Beyond
Business Transformation Office
February 12, 2014
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2. Agenda
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2
THE SECURITY CONCERNS
3
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THE TRENDS
THE CONCLUSION

3. Agenda
1
2
THE SECURITY CONCERNS
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© Firstsource 2013 | Confidential | 12-Feb-14 | 3
THE TRENDS
THE CONCLUSION

4. Technology to stay as a key factor in the industry trajectory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Singularity
CLOUD BASED CALL CENTERS ARE A REALITY
RISE OF THE HOME BASED AGENTS
FUTURISTIC CRMS
INTERNAL GAMIFICATION
SOCIAL IS THE NEW BLACK
NEW CS DELIVERY MECHANISM
CONTEXTUAL TECHNOLOGIES
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
8
7
6
Impact
4
5
3
50%
2
1
Timeline
‘12
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‘13
‘14
‘15
‘16 …. …
... ... …
… ...2023 ..2030 …2045

5. Cloud based call centers are a reality


Increased cost pressures are going to enable faster
cloud take up in the coming years

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Cloud based infrastructure is the fastest growing area
in the call center industry – DMG predicts this will
almost double in the period between 2013 & 2015
Key cost factor affecting cloud based contact center
adoption is the improvement in value of addressing
customer traffic in a timely manner (thereby reducing
abandonment rates) leading to quantifiable ROI

6. Rise of the home based agents over traditional setup


Used as a mechanism to retain MVPs

Reduced environmental impact is another (albeit
relatively minor) argument

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Elimination of location based recruiting increases the
pool of candidates
Return on investment, Information security and data
confidentiality remain the top three concerns of the
outsourcing functions

7. Futuristic CRMs to predict, auto-profile & map

Yesterday: Salesforce represents the current evolution
of CRM technology and intelligence

Tomorrow: The next stage of evolution will address
lead management. Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint
Ventures believes that Social proof will be the key
element in CRM evolution

Technologies that allow intelligent relationship
mapping to improve sales close rates will reach a
tipping point in CRMs

Intelligently scout the web and social media and map
relationships targeting improved odds of closing sales

CRMs that 'learn' from user activities will be able to
aggregate, sort, filter and identify leads, significantly
reducing data redundancy
“It’s still early, but the future is becoming more apparent. The industry is spending too much time perfecting marketing automation or
obsessing over better auto-dialers; great data is where we should be innovating. Since data is so difficult to clean and de-duplicate, often
times companies just look for ways to get more leads. That works – to a point – and it’s quite expensive to buy more leads rather than
focusing on how to target more of the right customers. The best way to ensure lead data is more usable is to break down the wall
between CRM and lead lists. The only question is, who will be the first to do it?” - Darian Shirazi, Forbes
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Link 1
Link 2

8. Let the Games begin
Traditional Call Center Environment –

Monotonous work environment with high stress job

Repetitive tasks and less engaged employees
Evolving Environment –

Gamification is a term for applying game mechanics to
non-game experiences and activities

Involves capturing data that the agent generates &
then uses that data to motivate them by giving them
real-time feedback, goals, rewards for milestones and
collaboration tasks

Goes way beyond "employee of the month", can help
activate a call center employees' 'flow' state
Pros
“The 21st Century is going to be a war for Human Attention”
– Jesse Schell
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Cons
• Reduce on-boarding time
• Higher employee
satisfaction & attention
span
• Automate incentive
programs
• Constant feedback
• Improve collaboration
Link 1
Link 2
• Not everyone’s ballgame
• Mismatched rewards can
lead to unintended
consequences
• Added complexity to
workforce system
integration

9. Social is the new Black

Bargaining power is back with customers on their
channels of preference

Companies can choose to listen or risk alienating their
customer base by not embracing social channels

Customer service through any text based channel is
always potent because of the speed at which text can
be processed by computer algorithms and the human
brain to provide faster responses

Big data to play a large role, especially since accurately
mapping the vast volumes of data gathered and
placing them in the right context is so valuable

Existing contact center agents are already social savvy

It isn't just enough to engage customers on social
media; in order to be truly effective, managing
communications across various media becomes far
more crucial
 Within 5 years, social media is likely to be a primary customer interaction channel for many servicing environments
 According to Ovum research, only 6 percent of banks that do leverage social media use it to respond to customer requests
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10. New customer service delivery mechanism: Google Helpouts?
What?
• Helpouts is Google's offering that fuses Google+ Hangouts, Google Wallet and its identity tools (G+)
• Works on video chat, connects you to a purported expert in whatever it is that you need help with
How?
• Google is working on an API for Helpouts to allow developers to integrate the service into provider's lives
• Users pay for the service they receive from the expert on a time basis (e.g. Per minute) although some Helpouts are free.
Multiple brands are considering this as an option
• Google is focusing on quality control of experts whilst increasing the expert base
• Helpouts still seems to be an experimental undertaking and Google has already partnered with video compression
company Ambarella to build wearable cameras that can be used during Helpout sessions
Questions
for Future
• Long terms implications on the customer service industry?
• Real world application of Helpouts by large MNCs from telecom/ banking/ media/ healthcare for customer service and sales?
• A Bank could set up a Helpouts service that counsels user on wealth management and investing, thereby improving their
opportunities to understand their customer better and potentially seeding opportunities for building the existing customer
relationship
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11. Putting everything in the right Context
Contextual Technologies –

“Understand” things about you and your environment
e.g. Google Glass

Anticipation of customer actions will shape how
resolution is delivered to them before problems arise

Massive adoption of Smartphone technologies is
moving contextual technologies faster than ever into
consumer's lives

Embedded sensors, ubiquitous computing and cloud
technologies are going to change customer service to
a more pre-emptive 'sense and respond' model that
allows sentient action to be taken before customers
report problems
Examples –

Uber can learn your limo habits and dispatch a car to
pick you up before you request it

Promotions and offer delivery mechanisms are
becoming smarter and pushing relevant promotions at
the appropriate time
smart-phone users will opt-in to context service providers

Preventive healthcare delivery is closer to reality
that track their activities.

Transportation, utilities, energy and healthcare firms
stand to gain
Gartner estimates that by 2015, 40 percent of the world's
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12. Eliminating human support via Artificial intelligence
Virtual Agents – Automatic Customer Service

Evolution of text and speech recognition, natural
language understanding and voice biometrics: Siri,
GoogleNow, etc.

Companies like IPSoft have already developed agents
that can handle low-end BPO work

Incremental improvements in self-service
technologies that ultimately seamlessly integrate with
Virtual Agents to further reduce dependency on
human customer service

Predictive technologies also play a role which would
allow prediction of customer behavior ultimately
leading to a solved query

IBM is also planning to open 'Watson's' Cognitive
platform to App providers and startups, enabling
Watson's services to be integrated into services and
available via cloud technologies
"It takes us three months to train a manual agent. But the machines will absorb standard operating procedures within
seconds. And you would have created the most competent virtual help desk engineer. What is liberating is that the machines
will be non-linearly scalable“ - Chetan Dube, IPSoft
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13. • This means tons of new
opportunities but also many new
challenges for customer service
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• Advent of self-diagnosing and
self-healing systems that are
sentient enough to know when
they are malfunctioning
• Will we have agents delivering
support by piloting nano-robots in
the future?
• Imagine a device hardware
problem being rectified by a
swarm of nano-robots deployed
from an airborne drone
dispatched to a customer's office
Augmented Reality
• Steadily decreasing costs and
increasing capabilities of 3D
printers suggests that product and
support delivery models will
move towards local mini factories
that can produce highly
customized products for
consumers
Artificial Biology, Drones and
Nanotechnology
Advanced / Distributed
Manufacturing
Honorable mentions: the bleeding edge
• Google Glass, GE’s smart grid,
WikiTude, Rayban Virtual Mirror,
BMW Z4 AR, etc. all point to the
endless opportunities via AR
• Remote customer assistance for
solving complex issues. E.g. –
Starting car's engine while wearing
Google glasses while a mechanic
(sourced from Google Helpouts) on
the end of a phone guides one on
fixing car’s radiator?
• Interface improvements will allow
for parallel processing of activities –
troubleshooting problems while a
user continues with other activities.

14. Agenda
1
2
THE SECURITY CONCERNS
3
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THE TRENDS
THE CONCLUSION

15. Tempting targets for unscrupulous elements (1/2)

Looking at the technologies and trends discussed it is
clear that an integrated, contextual, automated &
cloud based customer service solution also makes any
contact center of the future an even more of a
valuable target than is currently.

Social media aspect becomes tricky: employees to
maintain distinction between private and enterprise
social identities. No obvious solution to handle the
security and reputation issues that arise from this.

Dependency and usage of a cloud provider's
infrastructure still raises multiple security concerns
mostly towards data confidentiality, loss of control
and increased liabilities
o Two factor authentication, enhanced encryption,
enhanced Business Continuity plans and
appropriate key handling become important
factors in strengthening cloud security
The stakes here certainly higher!
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
Contextual technologies also raise a number of
security & ethical concerns relating to privacy. Where
does one draw the line at utility through data
collection & sharing versus privacy & inappropriate
targeted marketing

16. Tempting targets for unscrupulous elements (2/2)
Big data will have implications on:

Validation of data being gathered at your contact center, data privacy of data being
transmitted and analyzed

Data management also gives more lucrative targets to hackers

Internal threats also become more potent when dealing with centralized data stores
Big data itself has many positive implications on improved enterprise security in general through improved adaptive identity management,
fraud prevention through Big Data analytics and Big Data analytical inputs into governance, risk and compliance programs.
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Link 1

17. Agenda
1
2
THE SECURITY CONCERNS
3
© Firstsource 2013 | Confidential | 12-Feb-14 | 17
THE TRENDS
THE CONCLUSION

18. Will Customer Service really be dead soon?
ABSOLUTE SELF SERVICE
RELEVANCE QUESTIONED
o Next generation programming
languages, architecture
simplification, cloud
technology & augmented
reality could lead to scenarios
where self service is the only
means of customer service.
o Get ready for customer service
automation technologies to
kick into high gear in the
coming decade.
o American Customer Satisfaction
Index's 190 major brand 2013 study on
customer satisfaction shows that there
is no relevant correlation between
stock performance & customer
satisfaction.
o Companies want to reduce
dependence on human element in
customer service ASAP especially if
their core competency does not
revolve around customer intimacy.
TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY - Predicted To The Year 2045 A Ray Kurzweil's Concept
o A point where progress is so rapid it outstrips humans' ability to comprehend it. Irreversibly transformed, people will augment their minds
and bodies with genetic alterations, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. Once the Singularity has been reached, machine intelligence
will be infinite times more powerful than all human intelligence combined.
o Kurzweil expects computers to pass the Turing test (machine behavior indistinguishable from humans) by 2029. We can therefore assume
customer service from humans to be completely irrelevant by 2030 in the same way ATMs have almost completely replaced bank tellers.
o Post human developments involving bio-tech & implants could however raise the level of complexity of customer problems (e.g. customer's
bionic retina malfunctions)
o Post Singularity - Customer Service as a concept ceases to exist. RIP Contact Center.
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the Banking & Financial Services, Insurance, Telecom, Media & Publishing and Healthcare sectors. Its clients include FTSE 100, Fortune 500 and Nifty 50 companies.
Firstsource has a “rightshore” delivery model with operations in India, Ireland, US, UK, Philippines and Sri Lanka. (www.firstsource.com)
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