Vivento Customer Services

Vivento Customer Services GmbH (VCS) is a German service-center and personnel-services company headquartered in Bonn. It was founded in 2004 and is wholly owned by Deutsche Telekom AG. Its core business is the operation and marketing of call-center and customer-service activities, drawing much of its staff from the wider Vivento organization so that group employees affected by restructuring can be redeployed into new roles. Additional staffing needs are met through temporary and leased labor. The company's service portfolio covers the full range of customer care: classic customer service, individualized customer-retention programs, campaign services, sales support, and the assumption of complete business processes through business process outsourcing. Since 2008, through its subsidiary Vivento Digital Services (VDS), it has also offered document-management and electronic personnel- and patient-management solutions. VCS was established in 2004 as a GmbH & Co. KG with eight locations and 600 employees. One founding impulse was an attempt by the city of Norden and the state of Lower Saxony to rescue Deutsche Telekom's former special call center at the former Norddeich Radio site in Utlandshörn. During 2004 and 2005 the company opened further locations, especially in eastern Germany, converted into a GmbH in 2005, and grew to more than 3,500 employees. By mid-2006 it operated 19 locations nationwide, roughly half in western and half in eastern Germany. From 2006 onward VCS divested numerous locations. On 11 October 2006 it announced the sale of five sites to walter-TeleMedien effective 1 December 2006, affecting Aachen, Dresden, Halle, Lübeck and Magdeburg with about 710 employees, with Deutsche Telekom providing an order guarantee to the buyer until 2011 with an extension option. On 1 April 2007 two further sites, Suhl and Cottbus, were sold to walter ComCare with an order guarantee until 2012, transferring 480 employees. On 1 May 2007 VCS sold the Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Erfurt and Stuttgart locations to Arvato Services GmbH, a subsidiary of Arvato AG, and effective 1 March 2008 Arvato Services took over five more branches: Stralsund, Schwerin, Göppingen, Freiburg im Breisgau and Chemnitz with its Dresden branch. On 14 September 2011 employees at the affected sites were informed that the Bonn and Norden locations would close on 31 December of that year. VCS has been criticized for taking over less profitable Telekom sites and operations, such as customer service, and later selling them to other call-center companies at substantially lower wages or shutting them down, making it an instrument through which Telekom pursued workforce reduction. Today the broader Vivento brand positions itself as a personnel-services provider for the German public sector, supporting federal, state and municipal administrations with qualified administrative, financial and IT specialists, and as the exclusive personnel-service provider of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Vivento Customer Services GmbH (VCS) was founded in 2004 as a GmbH & Co. KG with eight locations and 600 employees. One of the founding ideas behind the company was an attempt by the city of Norden and the state of Lower Saxony to rescue Deutsche Telekom's former special call center at the former Norddeich Radio site in the Utlandshörn district of Norden. During 2004 and 2005 the company opened a series of further locations, particularly in eastern Germany, and in 2005 it converted into a GmbH. During this period the workforce grew to more than 3,500 employees. By mid-2006 VCS operated 19 locations nationwide, roughly half in western and half in eastern Germany. On 11 October 2006 the company announced that, after successful restructuring, five of its locations would be sold to walter-TeleMedien effective 1 December 2006. The affected branches were Aachen, Dresden, Halle, Lübeck and Magdeburg, with around 710 employees. Deutsche Telekom, as the 100% parent company, additionally guaranteed the buyer orders until 2011 with an extension option. After an interim increase in locations (Hamburg, Offenburg, Göppingen), two further sales of VCS sites to walter ComCare followed on 1 April 2007. The Suhl and Cottbus locations, previously handling order work for Deutsche Telekom, received an order guarantee until 2012 with an option for extension; 480 employees changed employers with the sale. On 1 May 2007 VCS sold the Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Erfurt and Stuttgart locations to Arvato Services GmbH, a subsidiary of Arvato AG. Effective 1 March 2008, Arvato Services GmbH took over five further VCS branches. The takeover covered the locations Stralsund, Schwerin, Göppingen, Freiburg im Breisgau and Chemnitz together with its Dresden branch. On 14 September 2011 employees at the affected locations were informed that the Bonn and Norden sites would be closed on 31 December of that year. VCS has been accused of taking over less profitable Telekom locations and operations, such as customer service, and later selling those locations to other call-center companies at considerably lower wages or dismantling them. In this view it served as an instrument through which Deutsche Telekom carried out workforce reduction. In parallel, the broader Vivento organization has continued to position itself as a personnel-services provider for the German public sector, supporting federal, state and municipal administrations with qualified administrative, financial and IT specialists and acting as the exclusive personnel-service provider of Deutsche Telekom AG.

• 2011

  On 14 September 2011 employees were informed that the Bonn and Norden locations would close on 31 December 2011.

• 2008

  Effective 1 March 2008 Arvato Services GmbH took over five further VCS branches: Stralsund, Schwerin, Göppingen, Freiburg im Breisgau and Chemnitz with its Dresden branch.

• 2008

  Since 2008 the subsidiary Vivento Digital Services (VDS) has offered document-management and electronic personnel- and patient-management solutions.

• 2007

  On 1 April 2007 the Suhl and Cottbus locations were sold to walter ComCare, transferring 480 employees.

• 2007

  On 1 May 2007 VCS sold the Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Erfurt and Stuttgart locations to Arvato Services GmbH.

• 2006

  By mid-2006 VCS operated 19 locations nationwide, roughly half in western and half in eastern Germany.

• 2006

  On 11 October 2006 VCS announced the sale of five locations (Aachen, Dresden, Halle, Lübeck, Magdeburg) to walter-TeleMedien effective 1 December 2006, affecting about 710 employees.

• 2005

  Company converted into a GmbH; workforce grew to more than 3,500 employees.

• 2004

  Vivento Customer Services founded as a GmbH & Co. KG with eight locations and 600 employees.

A Deutsche Telekom service-center and personnel-services unit focused on call-center operations, customer care and public-sector staffing in Germany.

• Call-center services

  Operation and marketing of call-center activities as the company's core business.

• Customer service and customer retention

  Classic customer service and individualized customer-retention measures.

• Campaign services and sales support

  Campaign services and support for sales activities.

• Business process outsourcing

  Assumption of complete business processes for clients.

• Vivento Digital Services (VDS) solutions

  Document-management and electronic personnel- and patient-management solutions offered since 2008.

• Criticism over site sales and workforce reduction

Read more

• Sale of five locations to walter-TeleMedienOther

• Sale of Suhl and Cottbus to walter ComCareOther

• Sale of five locations to Arvato ServicesOther

• Transfer of five further branches to Arvato ServicesOther

• Closure of Bonn and Norden locationsOther

1. 1Personal Services – Vivento: Personaldienstleistungenvivento.de
2. 2Über uns – Vivento: Personaldienstleistungenvivento.de
3. 3Vivento Customer Services – Wikidatawikidata.org
4. 4Vivento Customer Services – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org