One measure of increased business confidence came recently when the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) released its quarterly Outsourcing Confidence Index.

The results showed that more than half of end-users are more confident with using outsourcing to support their businesses than they were in 2009.

Thanks to increasing confidence, 60% of respondents said they planned to outsource services that had not been previously outsourced during 2010, with 56% of planning to increase the scope of pre-existing contracts.

The Index also showed an increasing focus by end-users on costs, which is hardly a big surprise but the concern is clearly that this should not lead to higher-volume, low cost contracts over shorter timeframes.

Our view is that the decision to outsource is a strategic one for our clients.  We work with them from the outset to ensure that the partnership delivers the outcomes that they are looking for. Typically, this focuses on helping manufacturers, resellers and distributors improve their service delivery, enhance their profitability, and if required, it can support business development and expansion.

Our relationship as an outsourcer goes way beyond being placed in a ‘supplier box’ with clients, or indeed just white labelling our services.  We often collaborate with clients when they are pitching for new business, helping to formulate strategy around areas such as customer service.

Achieving this requires the relationship to go far beyond that of supplier-client, but instead brings best of both companies as an outsourcing partnership to bear in order to deliver a superior outcome.  And that, surely, will be a partnership that ultimately serves the customer better. 

Neil Anderson
MD, Qcom

We’ve been quiet on the blog recently, so you may have been wondering what has been going on at Qcom.

Well, rather than getting distracted both by the fog of the recent political processes, as well as in all the debates on the general economic malaise, we have been focusing on our business - the part of the economy we can control.

I was quoted in an FT article about the recession and how businesses could gear up for a successful recovery.  I said that businesses are better to respond to mapped out market opportunities to minimise risks, and “companies that talk to their customers and deliver the right solutions will always prosper”.

And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.

Qcom’s vision is driven by a passion for great customer service and a quality ethos.  It’s the little details that count and we’re not happy if we don’t achieve the high standards we set ourselves. Clearly, it’s been a challenging winter for all UK-based field service operations but that notwithstanding, our focus is always on seeking opportunities for improvement. 

We differentiate ourselves for our partners by not only understanding the service problems that we solve for customers though outsourcing, but also on understanding the importance of delivering our solutions with consistency and reliability.

These are standards of excellence that can only be achieved by slick, effective operational processes, and our focus over the last few months has been on reviewing these processes to ensure we meet our promises against service delivery to you.

This meant that in January, we signed off a £60k investment on a new software platform from Armstrong, the first phase of which has now gone live.

The software will provide mobile reporting and a customer portal going forward, making the benefits of the investment visible to both you, our customer, and to your clients.

We have also been recruiting yet more engineers and revamping our training programme to ensure our service solutions stay aligned with your own ever-changing service needs over the next decade.

But to achieve this we need your input, so please let me know what skills you need us to have and how we can improve our business to you.  Our latest customer survey is launched this week, and we are looking for your feedback.  I would very much appreciate it if you could find time to complete one either here QcomPartnerSurvey2010. 

Neil Anderson
MD, Qcom

An interesting couple of days on the road. I visited the Telecoms Infrastructure Show – the backbone to the IT connected world - to find a quiet hall and a lack of youth and vibrancy.

By contrast next door, at Olympia, The Ad Tech Show, was heaving with the digital Web 2.0 World buzzing with energy (and money?), packed speaker slots, and ideas all around.

Perhaps the youth gravitating to this market haven’t realised that without any backbone and investment (of capital and people) in the infrastructure then the ‘internet et al’ won’t work – look up the latest FT digital business sub-section for the consequences of the internet going down – a not improbably Black Swan event as I write.  Or, look up the likelihood of power outages in the UK (especially in London) as demand for power increases but outpaces generation coming on stream, before 2013, particularly with the need to ‘reserve’ power for the Olympics leaving the rest of us….

Aaargh it will never happen…I seem to recall such views in the history books of the vibrant 60s before the depressing 70s, the three-day week and sitting with a candle as a youngster in the evening once the rationed power was switch off after suppertime. Part of the ‘net’ generation? Don’t believe me? Then look it up on Google, Wiki etc.

As the economic bubble burst last year shows, history has a terrible habit of repeating itself, and we seem to fail to learn from our mistakes.

However, thankfully it is not all doom and gloom. The economic constructive renewal of capitalism – its dynamism – and the changes that technological advances create bring opportunities and we all have the openings to redesign our business models to the new reality. I spoke about this yesterday at the Service Management Expo and for those who missed it, it will be on my LinkedIn pages shortly.

One of my themes in the presentation was the need for us in business to engage and connect with ‘Generation Y’- Dan Tapscott’s ‘net generation’ – who enter the workforce with embedded values and a different outlook on life and ways of working. I was therefore intrigued to hear the next day at the Chairman’s network from Paul Barry-Walsh, former CEO of Netstore, who espoused the importance of our respective corporate social responsibility strategies  - we should, he advocated, donate 1% of profits to charity, build CSR into our corporate DNA and engage our employees to think about the impact of our activities on the communities and world we act in – powerful stuff and, better still, we may well not only improve society but also our businesses through building a sense of passion, commitment and morale (and even our profits because of it?).

I’m off to examine what we do, what and how we invest in our people, and what we do to responsibility and minimise the impact of our activities. I’ll report back later but would welcome hearing your own experiences of CSR and values.

PS I also heard from Deborah Meaden at the SM Expo, on the importance of customer service, “business is service full stop, not part of it – all of it!”  a message that sat neatly with our own core values.

Neil Anderson

MD, Qcom

We’ve joined the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), one of the leading associations working within the outsourcing industry. 

I’m delighted to be a member because I view the NOA as one of the leading industry voices in terms of applying and developing innovation around outsourcing, both here at home and abroad. 

Professional organisations like the NOA support best practice through the sharing of ideas and information on market developments to their members.  I believe this offers a substantive benefit to Qcom and our customers by supporting continued improvements to our products and services.

The NOA is also the voice of the industry and I would like to be part of a collective body lobbying for change and development within the sector that we operate in. 

I look forward to linking up with fellow outsourcers with a view to sharing ideas and partnering on opportunities.

Neil Anderson

MD, Qcom

August is always an interesting month where the pace of economic activity seems to slow down a bit, offering a good chance to do some ‘housekeeping’ in the office, think about plans for the Autumn season, and get some good R&R with the family.

More than ever this year, August offers a strangely “surreal atmosphere”.

Two years into the new economic reality, nobody seems quite sure if ‘that’s it’ and we have turned the corner, with perhaps not quite as much pain as seemed likely in the dark days of November 08 to March 09, or rather, we are in a quiet before the storm.

But, whatever the economic reality, to produce winners in business we need to have a ‘passion’ at the core, something which has been brought home to me several times recently.

I attended the launch of the new Jaquar XJ where technological advancement have produced a wonderfully designed car under Ian Callum, director of design, and Giles Taylor, Chief designer. Giles gave an impressive talk on the style and features of the car, and positively oozed passion over the iconic designs, and its heritage roots.

And in my holiday reading, Gillian Tait’s impressive text ‘Fools Gold’ explores the story of the economic crash reliving the story of the derivative team at JP Morgan, who in the early days had created many of the new whizzo financial instruments that others were later to abuse and hype up with disastrous consequences.  These others ignored or misunderstood the underlying leverage and risks of these tools (much to the dismay and intrigue of the original JP Morgan team). But again, what shone through to me was the innovative, power of the original team under the leadership of Pete Horrick, who, with attention to detail and charismatic drive, instilled a passion into the team about the new instruments and financial models they were creating.

At Qcom, our passion has focused on ambassadorial customer service on behalf of our partners’ customers to enhance and protect their brands. My reflections during the last month or so have reenergised the importance of this for me and indicated that we need to remind ourselves of Qcom’s core values – we shall respond to the new economic reality by ensuring we do the right thing for the customer with passion.

I shall be presenting on the importance of the power of customer service at the SME Show, NEC, 22-23 September 2009, and would welcome the opportunity to explore these thoughts with you there.

Neil Anderson
MD, Qcom