Transcom previously had a center in Cali, Colombia serving clients in Spain until 2016, while the company’s primary focus was on European clients. n 2017 private equity firm Altor purchased the company in a $330 million USD buyout and began investing in the firm with a global strategy, including a strong push into North America.To that end, they brought in Atlanta-based Sitel veteran Donald Berryman as the firm’s new global Chief Commercial Officer.

“We were in Peru and we were in Chile, and all those markets supported offshore Spain, basically, and for some reason, the team at the time was totally dedicated to their own regions, and so we didn’t even sell nearshore English or Spanish from the U.S. into Colombia because it was managed by Spain,” said Berryman.

Juan Rodrigo Hurtado will lead Transcom’s operations in Colombia.

“We’ll be focusing, as Don mentioned, not only on US market share, but also on those formats where we have a lot of experience here in Colombia. We’ll be attentive the Spanish market from Spain and the U.S. market as well,” added Hurtado.

Transcom’s operations in Colombia will function as a hybrid telework and on-premises contact center, with agents hired initially from the metropolitan Bogotá area. Offices are located in the Calle 100 business district on Bogotá’s north side.

“One of the benefits we have coming into the market now post-Covid is that the tremendous work at home platform that we have—and even in the U.S. not everyone is fit for work at home or wants to, you know—I think there’s somewhere around 50 or 60 percent of the people that we interview that that can work from home and the others either because they need the socialization or they don’t have the right environment at home, and who want to use that same thing, but using this hybrid model that we start, the market is really going to make a big difference for us because we already know a lot of that: what works and what doesn’t work with work at home and then providing that ability for them to come into the facility one or two days a week”to socialize makes a big difference,” said Berryman.

Donald Berryman is Transcom’s Chief Commercial Officer.

The company initially wasn’t sure they were going to return to Colombia, but started from zero, considering all locations. “We used [contact center consultant] Peter Ryan to do some research for us looking at if we’re going to come back and enter the Latin market where is the best location? So we used Peter’s research, and we did a lot ourselves in looking at all the countries that are there, both in cost and availability of resources and most importantly, where customers want to go,” said Berryman.

“So one of the biggest demands coming from our existing clients was wanting to be in Colombia. Opening up the first of our locations in Latin America is really important to us to find the best management teams in place, and what we looked at when we narrowed it down between Colombia and Mexico was that we could hire the most experienced people because there’s the biggest availability of them in Bogota. We realized that it would be cheaper probably to start off in in a smaller city, unlike some of the bigger ones, and expand into them, but we figured we want to start with the best management team, the best location, the easiest to get to for a client and then expand into other cities once were established in Colombia, and so Juan decided after that research that Colombia was the best country for us to start.”

Interested candidates who wish to submit qualifications for Transcom opportunities in Colombia or elsewhere may do so by clicking here.

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“The fact that we are exiting Colombia and that we are evaluating strategic alternatives for Transcom’s business in Chile and Peru reflects a major shift in market conditions. Macroeconomic changes in the last couple of years have negatively affected the viability of Latin American contact centers as an offshore delivery solution for clients in Spain,” saud Transcom CEO Johan Eriksson. “In response, we have focused on repositioning our Latin American business towards serving domestic clients. While we have won a number of new clients, results are still unsatisfactory. Transcom is a marginal player in Latin America, and we have chosen to focus on other markets, where our potential for generating profitable growth is greater.”

Transcom’s losses in Latin America (EBIT)

“In connection with the changes announced today, Isabel Sánchez-Lozano, General Manager for the former Iberia & Latam region, will leave Transcom. I would like to thank her for her contributions to developing Transcom since joining the company in 2011,” said Eriksson, in a statement.

Transcom also announced a number of changes to its regional and management structure The company hopes that this realignment will improve efficiency and further streamline Transcom’s global business operations, as well as focus the organization’s resources on prioritized growth areas. Annual cost savings to be realized as a result of these actions are estimated at €2.9 million, and are expected to take full effect in the fourth quarter of 2016. Transcom has said that further efficiency gains in addition to these direct cost savings should hopefully be realized in the coming years, supporting Transcom’s mid-term financial objectives. A non-recurring restructuring cost amounting to approximately €2.7 million, related to the organizational changes described below, will be recorded in the first quarter of 2016.

A new region, Continental Europe, will combine Transcom’s operations in Spain and Portugal with the former Central & South Europe region (excluding the United Kingdom). Roberto Boggio has been appointed General Manager of this new region. · A new region, English-speaking markets and APAC, will integrate the UK organization with the company’s operations in North America & Asia Pacific. Siva Subramaniam has been appointed General Manager of this new region. Region North Europe will remain unchanged, led by Christian Hultén.

Transcom’s assets in Chile and Peru, currently under strategic review, will be managed separately, reporting directly to the President & CEO, Johan Eriksson. Starting in the Q1 2016 interim report, Transcom’s segment reporting will reflect this change. Pro forma comparable figures for Transcom’s new segment reporting structure will be released before the publication of Q1 2016 results.

Continued Eriksson: “We are also making a number of organizational changes in order to simplify our regional structure. This will yield cost advantages as well as enhance the opportunity to drive standardization and efficiency across our global business, placing us in a good position to reach our mid-term financial targets. Important focus areas in the coming years are to ensure that we have efficient and effective regional and corporate functions, that our sites deliver superior performance through operational excellence, that we excel in contract and account management, and that we win long-term profitable business in line with Transcom’s commercial and operational set-up.”