TTEC Digital invests in Europe

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The fact that there is still a lot of work to be done in customer contact is shown by the advance of large IT service providers in this domain. The American TTEC – originally a facility contact center, but has also been active for years with a technology branch – also wants to get started on the European market with TTEC Digital. Acquisitions are not excluded.

For Wiebe Vink (since April last year VP Digital Sales Europe at TTEC Digital) it is the first time that he works for a system integrator. “I have always worked for software vendors – Genesys, Avaya, Cosmocom, eGain – and of course for Transcom, a BPO player. With a system integrator you have to deal with a somewhat more complex landscape, with many more partners.”

For customer contact professionals in the Benelux, TTEC may be a relatively unknown name. The assignment of Vink, who has tried and tested in the customer contact sector: to prepare the European market for TTEC Digital.

Roots in facility customer contact

At TTEC is founder Ken Tuchman still on board as CEO after 40 years. The listed TTEC occupies a special position in the international BPO landscape compared to competitors. In 2010, the company was one of the first to successfully broaden its service offering to IT and system integrator activities. Among other things through a long series of acquisitions, which led to the formation of TTEC Digital. This technology arm of the company provides end-to-end CX design and orchestration services and smart contact center solutions. “TTEC Digital goes a step further than just taking over customer contact. An example of this is the joint venture with a car manufacturer, in which TTEC takes care of everything: people, processes and technology,” says Vink.

Footprint

As mentioned, TTEC is originally a facility. Vink explains that TTEC's facility operations are particularly large in North- and South America: in addition to the US, also in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil. But there are also sizeable ones offshore locations in the Philippines, India and Australia, for example. In addition, the company also has contact centers in Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and the United States United Kingdom. Last year, South Africa was added to the locations.

TTEC Digital

TTEC Digital has strongly invested in the Cisco partnership, partly through the acquisition of the company eLoyalty. That is also what Vink is initially going to do with the farmer in the Benelux. Cisco's suite also includes contact center solutions, but the company, like some other vendors, has been relatively late in investing in the move to cloud.

“Cloud is the future for everyone, so Cisco has done a good job of transforming WebEx Contact Center and building it into one state of art solution,” explains Vink. “The solution is neatly placed at the top right of Gartner's Magic Quadrant. And in the Netherlands, almost every large organization is already a Cisco customer, due to the purchase of UC services. We are now mainly focusing on customers who still have to go to the cloud with their customer contact.”

“The ideal customer? An organization that is still at the very beginning of the question of how to deal with customer contact.”

Focus from Vink

Vink will focus in particular on “the top end of the midmarket. In the e-commerce sector, for example, there is still quite a bit to gain, because there are players who still organize all the technology themselves.” Because TTEC Digital is technology independent, Vink will of course not miss out on other opportunities in the Benelux. Vink explains: “We have in-house knowledge of all platforms – from Genesys, Microsoft, AWS, Cisco and Google, to Pega and Salesforce – and we know from practice what running a customer contact operation entails. That is good for parties such as Salesforce, who need a large implementation partner for large projects. Conversely, Cisco, for example, which is fully partner-driven, has designated TTEC Digital in the Benelux as a preferred partner.”

Waiting time during a cloud migration

The demand for services from system integrators is high, according to discussions Ziptone has had with various service providers so far. This is partly due to the corona pandemic, which has accelerated the adjustment and modernization of IT landscapes. And the era when cloud was an option is well and truly over. Some software providers are putting pressure on their customers: the on-premise offering is no longer being developed or will soon no longer be supported. The increased demand is causing waiting times for various software suppliers and system integrators, for example for cloud implementations.

TTEC invests in Europe

What about a possible waiting time at TTEC? Vink: “The board of TTEC has made a clear choice to invest in the European market. I will initially focus on the Benelux. There is also a commitment to set up a Dutch-language support desk. Offshore capacity is available and we have capacity in Belgium that works for a number of larger clients. And sometimes a slightly older age is an advantage: of course I have my own network.”

To increase TTEC Digital's brand awareness as a partner, the company organizes a series of seminars. “These are sort of round table discussions with the theme 'connect the experience' in which we want to respond to questions from our potential customers and partners such as consultants based on our experience, customer cases and references,” says Vink. “We have inspiring examples, also from international customers with, for example, 30.000 seats.” (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)