Advanced Contact Solutions

Advanced Contact Solutions developed during the growth of the Philippine outsourcing and contact-center industry. It started in 1996 as a small, single-client operation with one site and roughly 300 seats. The business later expanded into a multi-site provider operating five centers and approximately 7,000 seats in cities in and near Manila, including Makati, Quezon City, and Lipa City. The company’s service model combined inbound and outbound customer-contact work. It handled telephone calls and customer e-mail for clients, while also providing outbound telemarketing. Its customer base extended beyond the Philippines to the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. To support this international service footprint, ACS worked with domestic and international telecommunications carriers and used point-to-point DS3, E1, and T1 connections. ACS was associated with Paxys Solutions Corp. and was described as the first publicly listed call-center company on the Philippine Stock Exchange. It also pursued formal quality and industry credentials. The company held ISO 9001:2000 quality-systems certification and participated in Philippine outsourcing organizations such as the Contact Center Association of the Philippines and the Business Process Association of the Philippines. Its memberships also included Philippine chambers of commerce and international organizations related to teleservices, direct marketing, and consumer affairs. The company reached a notable scale in the mid-2000s. Reference material characterized it as one of the 39 largest call centers in the Philippines and reported five operating sites with around 7,000 seats. Revenue for 2007 was reported at 2.6 billion Philippine pesos. ACS then encountered substantial operating pressure during the 2008 global financial crisis. Reduced demand from clients, combined with the bankruptcy and subsequent emergence from bankruptcy of one business customer, weakened business volumes. In November 2008, the company dismissed 889 employees, or about 20 percent of its workforce. It was also reported to have recorded a net loss of 100 million Philippine pesos on revenue of 1.48 billion pesos for the relevant period. The layoffs marked a major contraction after the company’s earlier expansion. The available reference material does not document later corporate developments in sufficient detail to determine whether Advanced Contact Solutions continued trading, changed its name, was absorbed into another operation, or became defunct. Its present status is therefore left unknown.

• 2008

  Workforce reduction during the financial crisis

  [1]Advanced Contact Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  The company dismisses 889 employees after declining business volume and financial difficulties involving a client.

• 2007

  Company reaches five sites and approximately 7,000 seats

  [1]Advanced Contact Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  ACS is described as operating five centers in and around Manila and as one of the Philippines’ 39 largest call centers.

• 1996

  Company begins as a single-site contact-center operation

  [1]Advanced Contact Solutionsen.wikipedia.org

  Advanced Contact Solutions starts with one client, one site, and approximately 300 seats.

A Philippine business-process-outsourcing provider focused on scalable contact-center, customer-support, and telemarketing operations for international and domestic clients.

• Contact-center outsourcing

  Inbound customer contact services

  ACS handled inbound calls for outsourced clients, forming the core of its customer-service and contact-center operation. The work was delivered through multiple Philippine sites and supported customers in both domestic and international markets.

• Digital customer service

  E-mail customer support

  The company provided outsourced responses to customer communications received through electronic mail. This extended its service offering beyond voice interactions and allowed clients to delegate written customer-support activity to Philippine-based teams.

• Direct marketing services

  Outbound telemarketing

  ACS conducted outbound telemarketing for clients, complementing its inbound service work with proactive customer-contact and sales-support activity. The offering was part of the company’s broader business-process-outsourcing portfolio.

• 2008

  Workforce reduction in response to falling business volumeStrategy

  Background

  The global financial crisis reduced business activity, while one client’s emergence from bankruptcy affected the company’s workload.

  Action taken

  In November 2008, ACS dismissed 889 employees, reported as approximately one-fifth of its workforce.

  Aftermath

  The layoffs reflected a significant contraction after the company’s expansion to five sites and approximately 7,000 seats. Reference material also reports a net loss for the relevant period.

  Reported revenue and net loss. Revenue of 2.6 billion Philippine pesos in 2007 → Revenue of 1.48 billion Philippine pesos and a net loss of 100 million Philippine pesos for the relevant 2008 period (2007 and 2008)

  Source

1. 1Advanced Contact Solutionsen.wikipedia.org