Alorica made a big announcement this month to acquire the majority of West Corporation’s agent services businesses. This is a significant move by Alorica, taking it from ~20,000 to 48,000 FTEs and with projected revenues of $1.2B in 2015. There are several strategic advantages that that the CEM BPO service provider gains from this move:
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Significant bump in scale. With its new headcount and projected revenue figures, Alorica goes from a mid-tier contact center service provider to a global major, able to compete with the likes of Concentrix, Convergys, Teleperformance and Sitel. This is sure to make an impact on its pipeline, where it’ll be invited to a lot more RFPs in the coming year from buyers that are looking for solid, stable service providers.
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Geographic spread, particularly for US domestic delivery. Alorica inherits a diverse workforce from West, spread across nearshore locations to the US (1,500 FTEs in Jamaica and Mexico), 5,400 FTEs offshore (the Philippines) and 18,400 FTEs in the US. This makes its global delivery network much stronger, especially as it pitches to US buyers with significant onshore and nearshore delivery presence. Alorica should also be able to integrate its offshore delivery network to service other client markets in the APAC region. Of note, over 5,000 of the acquired US workforce are home-based agents that were part of the ‘West At Home’ services model that brings with it a proprietary work force management system, Spectrum™ that Alorica will be able to integrate across its home agent network.
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Industry coverage and services. West’s business brings Alorica access to a client base in new verticals including healthcare, utilities and government, with synergies in other existing verticals such as financial services, retail travel and communications and CPG. The acquisition also adds capabilities in receivables management and direct response, in addition to expanding its customer care, sales and technical support offerings.
