By Edd K. Usman
A BPO company said it plans to strengthen its presence in the Philippines, describing the country as “crucial” for its operations in the region and across the world.
The company is called C3, or Customer Contact Channels, a three-decade old firm now led by Sudhir Agarwal, its global CEO. He is the founder of Sunrise BPO which, along with Everstone Capital, acquired C3.
“For us at C3, we are delighted to announce that we will grow and double in size over the next few years. We know we are a very small company compared to the others, but we truly believe we are different (with the experience that we give to our employees),” said Agarwal in an interview.
The C3 executive said the BPO industry in the Philippines will continue to grow, adding Filipinos should invest in their skills as education is the most important. “They should keep learning and moving up the value chain,” Agarwal said.
Like other foreign business executives now working in the country, Agarwal is optimistic and confident of the local business prospects.
“In the Philippines, we are enjoying a revenue CAGR (compounded annual growth) of over 50% while globally, we have witnessed growth of more than 60% over the past six years. The Philippines is crucial for us, not just in the region but for our global operations as well,” Agarwal said.
A host of services is being offered by the company, including “a full range of customer contact management services for corporate clients in the healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, energy and utilities, media, travel, retail, logistics, hospitality, and government services, from both US and international locations.”
Without giving any figures, the company said it aims to achieve more than double its revenue in the coming five years. It also seeks to increase its people locally to 5,600 by 2019.
“We are excited to be in the Philippines, which is a key hub for the global BPO industry. We are looking forward to the robust growth of the CRM/BPO industry in this country, which is witnessing impressive economic growth,” he pointed out.
“We believe C3 is ideally positioned to capitalize on the global appetite for high-performing customer experience organizations,? Agarwal added.
Everstone Capital, a private equity investor, and Sunrise BPO, are co-investors propping up C3 after their acquisition recently.
It is eyeing a stronger operation around the world, saying “its global revenues are likely to double by 2022 as it expands into new geographies and enters new services lines such as back office processing.”
C3 is also priming up to leverage new technologies and provide CRM solutions harnessing Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“As part of our aggressive growth agenda, C3 is looking to increase its worldwide employee count from 8,500 to over 18,000 in the next five years,? Agarwal added.
It can be recalled that Everstone Capital and Sunrise BPO completed the acquisition of C3 from US-based Stone Point Capital in December last year and formed Everise Holdings, based out of Singapore.
Everise Holdings controls 100% stake in C3 and named Agarwal as the global CEO of C3.
After the acquisition, C3 plans to expand to other geographies with the support of Everise. “We plan to expand operations to eight countries from three currently,? Agarwal said.
Atul Kapur, co-founder and managing partner of Everstone Capital, said he sees bright prospects for their acquisition.
“Everstone is thrilled to support C3 in its goal to become a global CRM powerhouse. C3 has shown robust growth and Everise is ready to grow it organically as well as inorganically in the coming years — both in the Philippines and in other geographies.?
C3 is also looking at the possibility of acquiring new companies in other countries to support expansion into new markets and services lines.
“Everise will work with its leadership on assessing such opportunities as they arise,” said Kapur, who is the managing partner for the $3.3 billion asset under management Everstone Group.
He cited the factors in the country were very conducive for C3?s expansion plans. “The Philippines has a stable business environment, impressive human capital, an English-speaking workforce, and strong economic growth,? he added.
Aside from the Philippines, C3 has operating centers in the US and Guatemala, with its services covering, among others, sales, service, performance optimization, reputation management and complete customer lifecycle management via traditional, Web, and emerging communication channels.
