Headstrong Continues Hiring Despite US Financial Crisis Impact in RP
Global consulting and IT services company Headstrong announced today that it will continue to provide employment opportunities to fresh graduates and retoolers in software technologies. Headstrong country manager, Nora Terrado, said that the company plans to hire 150 fresh graduates in the next six months despite the current US financial crisis affecting economies worldwide.
The move runs parallel to the company’s strategic goal of expanding its global workforce to 10,000 by the end of 2011, as stated in its Headstrong 2.0 program.
Headstrong Philippines currently implements ramp-up plans to hire at least 2,000 fresh graduates for its Manila Global Delivery Center (MGDC) in the next three years. The MGDC prepares young Filipinos to become competitive IT professionals in today’s global village through extensive training in specific technologies, process and methodologies, domain-led subjects in specific verticals, as well as development of consulting skills, management, and leadership.
According to the Commission on Higher Education, graduates of IT-related courses make up 10 percent of more than 400,000-college graduates per annum. Currently, the Philippines has close to 30,000 IT professionals that serve clients in the export software services sector.
“Headstrong’s 25-year track record reflects not only our expertise in end-to-end business, domain, and technology consulting, but also the strength and sustainability of our talent acquisition and retention programs,” said Terrado. “We constantly pursue innovation in all our business spectrum, including the way we place Filipino IT talents in to the workforce.”
Furthermore, instead of using placement consultants, the company prefers to maintain a high-performing internal recruitment team.
“Having a team focused on expanding our workforce allows us to tap campuses around the country for graduates with strong aptitude to learning and the drive to excel in particular technology, process or domain,” Terrado added.
Headstrong runs bootcamps, and training programs that enhance the IT skills of new graduates. The company maintains an Employee Performance Management Program (EPMP), providing the environment and the opportunity for employees to meet their performance goals and progress their career at Headstrong.
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About Headstrong
Headstrong is a global consulting and IT services company that applies its expertise in business processes and technology across key verticals in the capital markets industry. Headstrong’s client base in the financial services industry includes the top 10 investment banks. It provides domain-focused solutions across capital markets business areas – wealth and asset management, prime brokerage and securities financing, equities (cash and derivatives), and fixed income (mortgage-backed securities, over-the-counter [OTC] derivatives, and commodities). Headstrong delivers solutions in business process definition, systems integration, application development, application outsourcing, quality assurance (QA), and testing services and knowledge process outsourcing. Headstrong helps its clients realize value from their business and technology initiatives while leveraging a steadfast heritage (as James Martin + Co) of strong methodologies and global program management. Headstrong is headquartered near Washington DC, with a global presence across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Showing posts with label call centers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label call centers. Show all posts
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Headstrong Hires Former Freddie Mac's Employee
More than 40 specialized personnel to reinforce Headstrong’s Platform Centers of Excellence
Headstrong, a global consultancy, announced the hiring of Noreen Iles and other key former leaders of Freddie Mac’s specialized Technology Solutions Unit. The assimilation of a number of the TSU’s Eagle Investment and Misys Summit Debt & Derivative systems delivery team enhances Headstrong’s strategy of building Platform Centers of Excellence in key financial software instruments to meet high market demand for domain-focused capabilities.
The acquisition adds depth, expertise, and new services, particularly in Eagle and Summit software solutions, to Headstrong, while building upon the company’s capability in providing end-to-end solutions to financial services clients. In particular, it reinforces the company’s talent pool by adding more than 40 differentiated experts in investment accounting portfolio and debt & derivatives portfolio systems implementations.
“Noreen and her team are a great fit with Headstrong’s focus on financial services and Platform Centers of Excellence. They will strengthen the current P-CoE to cater to all front, middle and back office applications,” said Arjun Malhotra, Chairman and CEO of Headstrong. “Headstrong’s focus has been on providing domain-led IT services to Capital Markets and today we are recognized as one of the key players in this area.”
“Our growth related investments will continue to focus on building our expertise and domain differentiators,” Malhotra added.
The TSU’s proven expertise in the Eagle investment system, the Summit debt & derivative system, Pega Systems and automated underwriting capabilities for mortgage processes, combined with Headstrong’s solid financial services consulting practice, will provide customers with the leading technology and services available in the market today.
The team, led by Noreen Iles, maintains a 10-year plus working relationship, with extensive experience in providing IT solutions to the financial services, e-commerce, and retail industries. Iles, who has led successful completion of large, multi-year projects at Freddie Mac, will continue to manage the Chicago-based near-shore center for Headstrong. She is a recognized technical expert and corporate leader, and is a “Women in Technology International Leadership in IT” award recipient.
“We are excited to be part of Headstrong,” Iles stated. “Our key strengths and capabilities and commitment to client service complement each other and now we have a more complete value proposition.”
“By combining our vast experience in portfolio accounting systems in software implementation projects with Headstrong’s domain-led distributed delivery model, we should have a strong offering to serve our clients and grow the business,” she explained.
Eagle serves many of the world’s most prominent financial institutions, integrating and streamlining the investment process in support of achieving improved business efficiencies with its web-based solutions. Summit, a recognized market leader with a 14-year market experience, combines rules-based workflow and real-time trade processing with its sophisticated trader tools and risk management.
Headstrong currently maintains and develops platform centers of excellence in established financial services and Business Intelligence technology solutions, including Netezza, Calypso, etc, and with Eagle and Summit now added to its P-CoE portfolio.
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About Headstrong:
Headstrong, a leading software consulting company providing solutions to the financial services industry with focus on capital markets and securities, works with the foremost global investment banks, regional banks, asset managers and Exchanges. Headstrong provides innovative solutions in complex production environment across Credit Derivatives, Fixed Income, Marketplaces, Mortgages, Securities Financing, and Wealth Management. Headstrong combines robust methodologies, prototypes and reusable components with its global engagement footprint and seamless distributed delivery model. The company’s Platform Centers of Excellence (P-CoE) spearhead the creation of offerings for large multi-year managed programs and development of significant capabilities in selected ISV platforms that leverage Headstrong’s deep capital markets domain knowledge.
RP Call Centers Must Maintain High Quality Service to Sustain Growth
To achieve sustained growth, contact centers in the Philippines should maintain high quality service standards, a noted international customer service expert said.
“It’s no secret that a significant fraction of the country’s revenues in offshoring and outsourcing comes from the call center business,” said Ron Kaufman, also a best-selling author and customer service expert. “With advanced equipment available to practically anyone, the real battle ground would not only entail the fastest Internet connectivity, for instance. It will also focus on the response time and output given to the client as well.”
The Philippine call center industry is expected to top $ 4.3 billion in revenues this year or about two-thirds of the entire business process outsourcing market in the country and sustain 30 percent annual growth, according to a report released by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines during its annual Call Center Conference and Expo last month. CCAP projects that such growth would translate to 50,000 additional call center jobs this year.
“In a service-oriented industry, it is really the people who drive the business. And by simple logic alone, one is but compelled to accept the fact that there’s no amount of technology, or any piece of equipment for that matter, to compensate for inefficient or uncaring staff,” Kaufman said.
Call centers should not abandon their commitment to excellent service, which is an integral part in building strong relationships with clients, Kaufman said. He added that call center companies should build excellent rapport with suppliers and vendors and strategize on satisfying customers to achieve and sustain growth.
“And this is not restricted to the call center industry alone,” said Kaufman.
The Philippines is poised to capture 10% of the global O&O market by 2010, with total revenues of local providers forecasted to hit US$ 12 billion. By the end of 2008 alone, BPAP expects Philippine-based providers to reach approximately US$7 billion in total revenues.
“What all these figures depict is a bright future for this business,” said Kaufman. “Most of the technological requirements are there. That’s already a given. What needs more focus is having people in call centers satisfy clients.”
Kaufman will present “Secrets to Superior Service” in a one-day lecture at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Makati City on August 21. The seminar will focus on customer service principles necessary in enhancing service-oriented relationships.
Kaufman is the author of UP Your Service! and Lift Me UP!, two book series that led to the establishment of the “UP Your Service! College”—an integrated educational program for enhancing customer service and building a “superior service” culture.
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About the Ron Kaufman
Ron Kaufman is an internationally renowned educator, distinguished motivational speaker, and founder of UP Your Service! College. The acclaimed author of the UP Your Service! and Lift Me UP! book series, Kaufman first gained international recognition through his educational Website where he regularly uploads his award-winning UP Your Service! newsletter along with his video lectures on how organizations can build a superior service culture—the fundamental building block for ensuring first-rate customer service. He has conducted numerous training programs around the globe for clients including government agencies, multi-national corporations, and regional firms in the fields of financial services, manufacturing, and entertainment, to name a few. Kaufman is a graduate of Brown University, with post-graduate studies in London, France, and Berkeley, California.
“It’s no secret that a significant fraction of the country’s revenues in offshoring and outsourcing comes from the call center business,” said Ron Kaufman, also a best-selling author and customer service expert. “With advanced equipment available to practically anyone, the real battle ground would not only entail the fastest Internet connectivity, for instance. It will also focus on the response time and output given to the client as well.”
The Philippine call center industry is expected to top $ 4.3 billion in revenues this year or about two-thirds of the entire business process outsourcing market in the country and sustain 30 percent annual growth, according to a report released by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines during its annual Call Center Conference and Expo last month. CCAP projects that such growth would translate to 50,000 additional call center jobs this year.
“In a service-oriented industry, it is really the people who drive the business. And by simple logic alone, one is but compelled to accept the fact that there’s no amount of technology, or any piece of equipment for that matter, to compensate for inefficient or uncaring staff,” Kaufman said.
Call centers should not abandon their commitment to excellent service, which is an integral part in building strong relationships with clients, Kaufman said. He added that call center companies should build excellent rapport with suppliers and vendors and strategize on satisfying customers to achieve and sustain growth.
“And this is not restricted to the call center industry alone,” said Kaufman.
The Philippines is poised to capture 10% of the global O&O market by 2010, with total revenues of local providers forecasted to hit US$ 12 billion. By the end of 2008 alone, BPAP expects Philippine-based providers to reach approximately US$7 billion in total revenues.
“What all these figures depict is a bright future for this business,” said Kaufman. “Most of the technological requirements are there. That’s already a given. What needs more focus is having people in call centers satisfy clients.”
Kaufman will present “Secrets to Superior Service” in a one-day lecture at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Makati City on August 21. The seminar will focus on customer service principles necessary in enhancing service-oriented relationships.
Kaufman is the author of UP Your Service! and Lift Me UP!, two book series that led to the establishment of the “UP Your Service! College”—an integrated educational program for enhancing customer service and building a “superior service” culture.
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About the Ron Kaufman
Ron Kaufman is an internationally renowned educator, distinguished motivational speaker, and founder of UP Your Service! College. The acclaimed author of the UP Your Service! and Lift Me UP! book series, Kaufman first gained international recognition through his educational Website where he regularly uploads his award-winning UP Your Service! newsletter along with his video lectures on how organizations can build a superior service culture—the fundamental building block for ensuring first-rate customer service. He has conducted numerous training programs around the globe for clients including government agencies, multi-national corporations, and regional firms in the fields of financial services, manufacturing, and entertainment, to name a few. Kaufman is a graduate of Brown University, with post-graduate studies in London, France, and Berkeley, California.
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