Analytics & consulting services to boom

There is a huge demand domestically for IT applications services as it is the backbone of delivery for any business, says Vertex India CEO Keshav Gaur.

“The right quality focus and access to global expertise aid companies align delivery and support IT solutions that help clients achieve high performance. In these fast-changing times, analytics and consulting services are also becoming essential to develop the predictive capabilities and to achieve operational excellence. These services are now gaining magnitude in utilities, telecom, financial services and the public sectors,” says Gaur.

Vertex is one of the many new-wave business process outsourcing (BPO) entities looking to make a mark in India since 2002, “when the Vertex Group acquired the UK contact centre operator 7C and the shareholding of 7C India”, he asserts.

With Vertex offering a bouquet of services, among them consulting, IT applications and analytics, they are seeing their business grow to a point where in September 2010 they signed a joint venture deal with Shell Transource.

“This joint venture creates one of India’s largest integrated end-to-end solution providers in the customer management outsourcing industry. Today, we have over 5,000 employees in India. We principally provide a range of voice and non-voice services and fulfillment solutions for international and domestic clients and a number of key support services to the Vertex business,” he explains.

With multi-lingual capabilities and in-depth understanding of rural markets and Tier II and Tier III cities, they have customers from over 350 locations in India, especially in these above-mentioned markets.

The joint venture has ensured that Vertex has “a broad client base across financial services (banking & insurance), public sector, aviation, BFSI, telecom, utilities, KPO and media sectors, and our sales pipeline is strong and continues to grow”, assures Gaur.

Vertex also has expertise in delivering advanced analytics and marketing research driven management consulting services to many companies in sectors like banking, telecom, FMCG, energy, transportation, retail, pharma, BPOs and others.

It also delivers IT-enabled business intelligence solutions using advanced state-of-the-art software tools such as SAS, WPS, R, Stata, Qlikview, Cognos, Informatica, and Business Object and applies advanced research methods and state-of-the-art models to meet clients’ strategic and operational decision needs.

What’s more, the organization is also building on its Decision Sciences capability in India. It is looking to leverage all of these business solutions in their portfolio, over a range of sectors - like retail, financial services, travel, utilities, media and telecom, public services and logistics and transportation.

When asked which of these sectors seem more promising to Vertex, Gaur said, "Our industry focus is utilities, public sector, financial services, telecommunications, media & entertainment and retail/distribution industries where we provide rewarding customer experiences and valuable client outcomes in the areas of Customer Management Outsourcing, IT Applications and Services, Consulting and Transformation and Decision Sciences. Sectors with maximum potential and immediate addressable opportunities are banking and insurance, telecom, retail, travel and the public sector."

With their core belief being that they are on the ‘same side of the table’, which means that they share risks and rewards, which in turn gives them a stake in helping their clients’ achieve success, they are well placed to understand their clients’ needs. This insight allows Vertex to shape the development of new strategies, techniques and technologies.

Written for India Syndicate