ERP Insights >> Magazine >> November - 2015 issue
ICAN BPO: An Alter-Ego of SMEs
Author : Pankaj Kundwani
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Data is one of the most precious assets a business may own. However, extracting value out of this data to acquire, serve, retain customers and build a growth trajectory for the business is a herculean task. This is especially true for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises/Companies) where budget allocation for analytics and investment in big data projects is very limited.
While large corporations with big budgets are partially served by the large consulting and ITES firms, the needs of the fast mushrooming SMEs have been mostly under served for a long time. This is where ICAN BPO Pvt. Ltd. (ICAN) stands apart as an exception. Ican serves SMEs in several industry sectors through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. Further, Ican's custom built dashboards provide real time and on-demand access to core business metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Jagdish Iyer, Group CEO and President at ICAN, says, "Many SMEs see BPOs as a cost center rather than a revenue center. The key challenges SMEs face are quick turn around and accurate ROI measurement - be it a new CRM implementation or kick starting a new marketing strategy. The issue they face with most large ITES companies is their unwillingness to do things on the fly and flexibly. We at ICAN bring the professionalism and competence of much larger ITES firms with the flexibility and working style of a start up."
The journey of ICAN dates back to 2009 when Jagdish Iyer, Nitin Chacko, Vinod Rao and Adarsh Shetty, the founding members of ICAN realized that there was a scarcity of companies that cater to the needs of SMEs. With several decades of collective experience across geographies in large organizations including Adventity (now Sutherland Global Services), Infosys, Wipro, Virgin and Thomson Reuters, the founding team had immense experience in managing large relationships across industry sectors. The team decided to bring the same level of service and expertise to SMEs and so was born ICAN.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the company vests its major focus on the markets in North America and Western Europe. Nitin Chacko, Managing Director, explains how ICAN being a full service solutions provider leverages its proprietary ICARE approach and handholds its clients throughout the life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. "Our superior de-risked execution model, extensive use of technology, and proprietary customer behavior predictive algorithms are leveraged into a powerful ROI enhancing formula for our clients. We truly live by our mission of "Enabling Success" for our clients. This has empowered us to become a dominant player in the SME segment in a short span of over six years," he adds.
A key differentiation that ICAN offers is its flexibility in engagement structure. Ican works in structures that vary from plain vanilla service provider to revenue shares to full blown P and L based partnerships. The businesses that the company owns, serves or partners with varies from Consumer and Small Business Financing to Auto, Life and Health Insurance Sales to Loyalty and Affinity Marketing to a full service tech support that supports thousands of customers 24x7 across variety of platforms and devices as well as Durable Medical Equipment's sales and service and APS retrieval business predominantly catering to the US, Canada and UK geographies.
ICARE, Not Just an Approach, a Commitment
Speaking about ICAN's CRM lifecycle service - ICARE, Vinod Rao, SVP Operations narrates how he and his team believe in reaching out to customers and encouraging product and/or service usage. "In our experience, this results in significant reduction in customer attrition and provides an additional reference channel for further customer acquisitions. Our unique measurement tools provide our clients with clear visibility into the ROI on such activities," he explains. The company leverages its proprietary ICARE (Customer Acquisition Engagement and Retention) approach and handholds clients through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. To ensure scalability across various platforms and geographies, ICAN employs a large pool of highly trained and experienced resources across geographies capable of communicating with prospects and customers regardless of technology/IP/telecom platforms. "Our acclaimed measurement tools ensure that our clients are in most cases able to meet and exceed not just sales and retention targets but also do it in the most ROI efficient manner possible," he adds.
Team ICAN – In Union is Strength
'Employees are the greatest assets of an organization'- deems Adarsh Shetty, SVP Business Development. With this thought in mind, ICAN has instilled a desirable work environment where employees have ample opportunities to cherish their personal, emotional and professional growth. "Currently with 400 employees and over 300 outsourced positions, we have grown in revenues at CAGR of well over 100 percent since inception and we credit it to our employees/contractors for their increased efficiency over time. Although we strive to maintain 70:30 ratios of experienced and inexperienced talents within our arsenal, we keep the mental framework, value systems and predispositions of the job aspirants at the helm, akin to the experience quotient," elucidates Adarsh. The HR team works in tandem with other parent functions and has embedded bona fide feedback algorithms, numerous coaching, mentoring and feedback sessions in the work setup that propel the crew to set their best foot forward. In addition to its on-boarding initiatives, the fresh minds are groomed under the best experienced resources and a dedicated mentor in their initial months to turn into seasoned professionals.
While the initiatives like Employee Health Matrix, skip level meetings and strategic surveys back the employees at all professional levels, ICAN has many initiatives aimed at achieving work-life balance for it employees. The company follows a 360º appraisal model to annually assess performances and reward its employees. With multiple stress-buster activities unfolding themselves every day, ICAN leaves no stone unturned to celebrate happy moments that enliven the staff to refresh themselves within the mundane and mind-numbing business atmosphere, while their grievances are also sorted in a time-bound manner. The no-bureaucracy milieu leaves no space for miscommunications and the open entity is also highly celebrated for its salary and performance incentives systems that supersede industry standards. "The celebrations happen at three levels. The most basic level is the celebration within a specific team of a specific process. The second (a grander level) is when all teams of the particular process celebrate as one unit, together. The final level is the big stage event, where ICAN crowns the top performers annually," adds Adarsh.
Finding Joy in the Journey
The journey of ICAN has been fruitful as well as mesmerizing. "We have managed to dominate the SME BPO realm with our specialized approach and strategy and we continue to grow our business within the SME segment. We are a preferred partner and a one stop solution for anything in the outsourcing arena across domains we cater to and specialize in," says Nitin. With year on year two fold revenue growth, the company has been named as "Emerging Company of the Year" by Silicon India in 2014, "BPO consultants of year 2015" by Consultants Review, Shortlisted by Business World for Best HR practices for 2015, amongst others. In the years to come, team ICAN envisions strengthening their SME based business by adding more in the domains of healthcare and insurance and reaching out to the UK and Australian markets. "We continue to see very strong demand for our services and plan to grow our current portfolio of business and double our current size in 2016. Much of this growth in terms of manpower is planned in our partner companies and the number of outsourced/contracted positions is estimated to cross 500 active positions in that period" says Nitin.
New initiatives - The Path into the Future
One of Ican's immediate focus areas is in the healthcare space in the US. Ican has recently made a couple of small acquisitions in this arena and is limited in what it can share since the deals are still confidentiality bound. "Healthcare in general and in particular related Services aimed at Seniors in North America is one of our focus areas in the medium term. We are constantly evaluating businesses for potential partnerships or acquisitions," comments Jagdish Iyer, CEO, ICAN.
ICAN BPO: An Alter-Ego of SMEs
Author : Pankaj Kundwani
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Data is one of the most precious assets a business may own. However, extracting value out of this data to acquire, serve, retain customers and build a growth trajectory for the business is a herculean task. This is especially true for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises/Companies) where budget allocation for analytics and investment in big data projects is very limited.
While large corporations with big budgets are partially served by the large consulting and ITES firms, the needs of the fast mushrooming SMEs have been mostly under served for a long time. This is where ICAN BPO Pvt. Ltd. (ICAN) stands apart as an exception. Ican serves SMEs in several industry sectors through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. Further, Ican's custom built dashboards provide real time and on-demand access to core business metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Jagdish Iyer, Group CEO and President at ICAN, says, "Many SMEs see BPOs as a cost center rather than a revenue center. The key challenges SMEs face are quick turn around and accurate ROI measurement - be it a new CRM implementation or kick starting a new marketing strategy. The issue they face with most large ITES companies is their unwillingness to do things on the fly and flexibly. We at ICAN bring the professionalism and competence of much larger ITES firms with the flexibility and working style of a start up."
The journey of ICAN dates back to 2009 when Jagdish Iyer, Nitin Chacko, Vinod Rao and Adarsh Shetty, the founding members of ICAN realized that there was a scarcity of companies that cater to the needs of SMEs. With several decades of collective experience across geographies in large organizations including Adventity (now Sutherland Global Services), Infosys, Wipro, Virgin and Thomson Reuters, the founding team had immense experience in managing large relationships across industry sectors. The team decided to bring the same level of service and expertise to SMEs and so was born ICAN.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the company vests its major focus on the markets in North America and Western Europe. Nitin Chacko, Managing Director, explains how ICAN being a full service solutions provider leverages its proprietary ICARE approach and handholds its clients throughout the life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. "Our superior de-risked execution model, extensive use of technology, and proprietary customer behavior predictive algorithms are leveraged into a powerful ROI enhancing formula for our clients. We truly live by our mission of "Enabling Success" for our clients. This has empowered us to become a dominant player in the SME segment in a short span of over six years," he adds.
A key differentiation that ICAN offers is its flexibility in engagement structure. Ican works in structures that vary from plain vanilla service provider to revenue shares to full blown P and L based partnerships. The businesses that the company owns, serves or partners with varies from Consumer and Small Business Financing to Auto, Life and Health Insurance Sales to Loyalty and Affinity Marketing to a full service tech support that supports thousands of customers 24x7 across variety of platforms and devices as well as Durable Medical Equipment's sales and service and APS retrieval business predominantly catering to the US, Canada and UK geographies.
ICARE, Not Just an Approach, a Commitment
Speaking about ICAN's CRM lifecycle service - ICARE, Vinod Rao, SVP Operations narrates how he and his team believe in reaching out to customers and encouraging product and/or service usage. "In our experience, this results in significant reduction in customer attrition and provides an additional reference channel for further customer acquisitions. Our unique measurement tools provide our clients with clear visibility into the ROI on such activities," he explains. The company leverages its proprietary ICARE (Customer Acquisition Engagement and Retention) approach and handholds clients through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. To ensure scalability across various platforms and geographies, ICAN employs a large pool of highly trained and experienced resources across geographies capable of communicating with prospects and customers regardless of technology/IP/telecom platforms. "Our acclaimed measurement tools ensure that our clients are in most cases able to meet and exceed not just sales and retention targets but also do it in the most ROI efficient manner possible," he adds.
Team ICAN – In Union is Strength
'Employees are the greatest assets of an organization'- deems Adarsh Shetty, SVP Business Development. With this thought in mind, ICAN has instilled a desirable work environment where employees have ample opportunities to cherish their personal, emotional and professional growth. "Currently with 400 employees and over 300 outsourced positions, we have grown in revenues at CAGR of well over 100 percent since inception and we credit it to our employees/contractors for their increased efficiency over time. Although we strive to maintain 70:30 ratios of experienced and inexperienced talents within our arsenal, we keep the mental framework, value systems and predispositions of the job aspirants at the helm, akin to the experience quotient," elucidates Adarsh. The HR team works in tandem with other parent functions and has embedded bona fide feedback algorithms, numerous coaching, mentoring and feedback sessions in the work setup that propel the crew to set their best foot forward. In addition to its on-boarding initiatives, the fresh minds are groomed under the best experienced resources and a dedicated mentor in their initial months to turn into seasoned professionals.
While the initiatives like Employee Health Matrix, skip level meetings and strategic surveys back the employees at all professional levels, ICAN has many initiatives aimed at achieving work-life balance for it employees. The company follows a 360º appraisal model to annually assess performances and reward its employees. With multiple stress-buster activities unfolding themselves every day, ICAN leaves no stone unturned to celebrate happy moments that enliven the staff to refresh themselves within the mundane and mind-numbing business atmosphere, while their grievances are also sorted in a time-bound manner. The no-bureaucracy milieu leaves no space for miscommunications and the open entity is also highly celebrated for its salary and performance incentives systems that supersede industry standards. "The celebrations happen at three levels. The most basic level is the celebration within a specific team of a specific process. The second (a grander level) is when all teams of the particular process celebrate as one unit, together. The final level is the big stage event, where ICAN crowns the top performers annually," adds Adarsh.
Finding Joy in the Journey
The journey of ICAN has been fruitful as well as mesmerizing. "We have managed to dominate the SME BPO realm with our specialized approach and strategy and we continue to grow our business within the SME segment. We are a preferred partner and a one stop solution for anything in the outsourcing arena across domains we cater to and specialize in," says Nitin. With year on year two fold revenue growth, the company has been named as "Emerging Company of the Year" by Silicon India in 2014, "BPO consultants of year 2015" by Consultants Review, Shortlisted by Business World for Best HR practices for 2015, amongst others. In the years to come, team ICAN envisions strengthening their SME based business by adding more in the domains of healthcare and insurance and reaching out to the UK and Australian markets. "We continue to see very strong demand for our services and plan to grow our current portfolio of business and double our current size in 2016. Much of this growth in terms of manpower is planned in our partner companies and the number of outsourced/contracted positions is estimated to cross 500 active positions in that period" says Nitin.
New initiatives - The Path into the Future
One of Ican's immediate focus areas is in the healthcare space in the US. Ican has recently made a couple of small acquisitions in this arena and is limited in what it can share since the deals are still confidentiality bound. "Healthcare in general and in particular related Services aimed at Seniors in North America is one of our focus areas in the medium term. We are constantly evaluating businesses for potential partnerships or acquisitions," comments Jagdish Iyer, CEO, ICAN.
While large corporations with big budgets are partially served by the large consulting and ITES firms, the needs of the fast mushrooming SMEs have been mostly under served for a long time. This is where ICAN BPO Pvt. Ltd. (ICAN) stands apart as an exception. Ican serves SMEs in several industry sectors through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. Further, Ican's custom built dashboards provide real time and on-demand access to core business metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Jagdish Iyer, Group CEO and President at ICAN, says, "Many SMEs see BPOs as a cost center rather than a revenue center. The key challenges SMEs face are quick turn around and accurate ROI measurement - be it a new CRM implementation or kick starting a new marketing strategy. The issue they face with most large ITES companies is their unwillingness to do things on the fly and flexibly. We at ICAN bring the professionalism and competence of much larger ITES firms with the flexibility and working style of a start up."
The journey of ICAN dates back to 2009 when Jagdish Iyer, Nitin Chacko, Vinod Rao and Adarsh Shetty, the founding members of ICAN realized that there was a scarcity of companies that cater to the needs of SMEs. With several decades of collective experience across geographies in large organizations including Adventity (now Sutherland Global Services), Infosys, Wipro, Virgin and Thomson Reuters, the founding team had immense experience in managing large relationships across industry sectors. The team decided to bring the same level of service and expertise to SMEs and so was born ICAN.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the company vests its major focus on the markets in North America and Western Europe. Nitin Chacko, Managing Director, explains how ICAN being a full service solutions provider leverages its proprietary ICARE approach and handholds its clients throughout the life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. "Our superior de-risked execution model, extensive use of technology, and proprietary customer behavior predictive algorithms are leveraged into a powerful ROI enhancing formula for our clients. We truly live by our mission of "Enabling Success" for our clients. This has empowered us to become a dominant player in the SME segment in a short span of over six years," he adds.
A key differentiation that ICAN offers is its flexibility in engagement structure. Ican works in structures that vary from plain vanilla service provider to revenue shares to full blown P and L based partnerships. The businesses that the company owns, serves or partners with varies from Consumer and Small Business Financing to Auto, Life and Health Insurance Sales to Loyalty and Affinity Marketing to a full service tech support that supports thousands of customers 24x7 across variety of platforms and devices as well as Durable Medical Equipment's sales and service and APS retrieval business predominantly catering to the US, Canada and UK geographies.
ICARE, Not Just an Approach, a Commitment
Speaking about ICAN's CRM lifecycle service - ICARE, Vinod Rao, SVP Operations narrates how he and his team believe in reaching out to customers and encouraging product and/or service usage. "In our experience, this results in significant reduction in customer attrition and provides an additional reference channel for further customer acquisitions. Our unique measurement tools provide our clients with clear visibility into the ROI on such activities," he explains. The company leverages its proprietary ICARE (Customer Acquisition Engagement and Retention) approach and handholds clients through the entire life cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and retention. To ensure scalability across various platforms and geographies, ICAN employs a large pool of highly trained and experienced resources across geographies capable of communicating with prospects and customers regardless of technology/IP/telecom platforms. "Our acclaimed measurement tools ensure that our clients are in most cases able to meet and exceed not just sales and retention targets but also do it in the most ROI efficient manner possible," he adds.
Team ICAN – In Union is Strength
'Employees are the greatest assets of an organization'- deems Adarsh Shetty, SVP Business Development. With this thought in mind, ICAN has instilled a desirable work environment where employees have ample opportunities to cherish their personal, emotional and professional growth. "Currently with 400 employees and over 300 outsourced positions, we have grown in revenues at CAGR of well over 100 percent since inception and we credit it to our employees/contractors for their increased efficiency over time. Although we strive to maintain 70:30 ratios of experienced and inexperienced talents within our arsenal, we keep the mental framework, value systems and predispositions of the job aspirants at the helm, akin to the experience quotient," elucidates Adarsh. The HR team works in tandem with other parent functions and has embedded bona fide feedback algorithms, numerous coaching, mentoring and feedback sessions in the work setup that propel the crew to set their best foot forward. In addition to its on-boarding initiatives, the fresh minds are groomed under the best experienced resources and a dedicated mentor in their initial months to turn into seasoned professionals.
While the initiatives like Employee Health Matrix, skip level meetings and strategic surveys back the employees at all professional levels, ICAN has many initiatives aimed at achieving work-life balance for it employees. The company follows a 360º appraisal model to annually assess performances and reward its employees. With multiple stress-buster activities unfolding themselves every day, ICAN leaves no stone unturned to celebrate happy moments that enliven the staff to refresh themselves within the mundane and mind-numbing business atmosphere, while their grievances are also sorted in a time-bound manner. The no-bureaucracy milieu leaves no space for miscommunications and the open entity is also highly celebrated for its salary and performance incentives systems that supersede industry standards. "The celebrations happen at three levels. The most basic level is the celebration within a specific team of a specific process. The second (a grander level) is when all teams of the particular process celebrate as one unit, together. The final level is the big stage event, where ICAN crowns the top performers annually," adds Adarsh.
Finding Joy in the Journey
The journey of ICAN has been fruitful as well as mesmerizing. "We have managed to dominate the SME BPO realm with our specialized approach and strategy and we continue to grow our business within the SME segment. We are a preferred partner and a one stop solution for anything in the outsourcing arena across domains we cater to and specialize in," says Nitin. With year on year two fold revenue growth, the company has been named as "Emerging Company of the Year" by Silicon India in 2014, "BPO consultants of year 2015" by Consultants Review, Shortlisted by Business World for Best HR practices for 2015, amongst others. In the years to come, team ICAN envisions strengthening their SME based business by adding more in the domains of healthcare and insurance and reaching out to the UK and Australian markets. "We continue to see very strong demand for our services and plan to grow our current portfolio of business and double our current size in 2016. Much of this growth in terms of manpower is planned in our partner companies and the number of outsourced/contracted positions is estimated to cross 500 active positions in that period" says Nitin.
New initiatives - The Path into the Future
One of Ican's immediate focus areas is in the healthcare space in the US. Ican has recently made a couple of small acquisitions in this arena and is limited in what it can share since the deals are still confidentiality bound. "Healthcare in general and in particular related Services aimed at Seniors in North America is one of our focus areas in the medium term. We are constantly evaluating businesses for potential partnerships or acquisitions," comments Jagdish Iyer, CEO, ICAN.
