THE MARKET

With all the negative press on outsourcing-in particular, offshoring-it behooves outsourcers to work even harder to prove their worth. To do this, outsourcers over the past year have been focusing on automation technologies, different geographical markets, and M&As to grow their depth and breadth of services.

"Many of these companies are positioning themselves as a one-stop-shop for any BPO needs a firm, large or small, might have," says John Willmott, analyst at NelsonHall UK. "The holy grail for these guys in terms of customer care is that when a customer interaction does come in, they have enough customer information about that person so they know how to respond, counsel them, and upsell and cross-sell."

THE LEADERS

EDS continues to be one of the strongest call center outsourcing companies and most well rounded, with solid offerings in systems integration, network and systems operations, data center management, and customer care outsourcing. Within the last year, the company has built out its customer management platform to also support human resources services, and built out its speech-enabled and Web self-service offerings. All these services helped the company earn a 4.3 in reputation for depth of services, highest of the leaders, according to analysts polled. "EDS is a company that rather than competing on price alone, they're looking at how they can use customer interaction data and new services and technology so they can have a more intelligent conversation with the customer," Willmott says.

TeleTech continues to be a regular on the leaderboard and is the second largest teleservices provider in the United States (behind Convergys), with more than 65 call centers located in almost 20 countries. It continues to offer a variety of call-handling and customer management services, including support, customer acquisition and retention, and service provisioning for telecommunication providers. The company has always been strong in callhandling, direct marketing, and data management services for the automotive market, though analysts say this business is beginning to moderate as the company places more emphasis on financial services and healthcare companies. This new direction leads to a solid 4.1 in company direction; however, TeleTech received a lackluster customer satisfaction ratings of 3.7, the lowest among the leaders, according to analysts polled.

THE WINNER

One outsourcing company on most enterprises' short list is Convergys, the category winner for two years in a row. It received the highest marks in customer satisfaction and company direction of all the leaders, and continues to be one of the most versatile BPO providers. Its Employee Care unit offers outsourcing of HR functions, while its Customer Care division-the largest teleservices business in the U.S.-provides both inbound and outbound call handling for sales, marketing, and support through more than 60 call centers. Convergys also offers bill processing services and provisioning software to telecommunications companies through its Information Management Group. Acquiring Deloitte's F&A BPO business in June 2005 only strengthened the company's well-rounded offerings.

"When you're looking for a name in outsourcing, Convergys is as blue chip as you're going to get," one analyst says. "They can build a strong HR and F&A business around all of their customer care stuff, which only helps them leverage customers better. They have an excellent reputation amongst their customers across many verticals." -Colin Beasty