With call centers in both Canada and India, TWS offers ISPs a combination of offshore and near-shore outsourcing.

by Jeff Goldman [September 7, 2005]

TWS Holdings was founded in 2003 through the merger of three global outsourcing providers: Tracmail, Webhelp, and Spherenomics. Rakesh Kaul, TWS' CEO, says the new company boasts a uniquely diverse offering. "As a result of the merger, we were able to establish a platform with a center in Montreal, Canada and a center in Mumbai, India—and offer customer relationship management services with both a near-shore and an offshore presence," Kaul says.

TWS Park 80 West, Plaza Two Suite 200 Saddle Brook, NJ 07663 USA Voice: 888-WEB-6611 info@webhelp.com

Customers who want to maximize their savings, Kaul says, can use the India-based call center, while others can choose to work with the Montreal location—or they can combine the two as needed. "We have a client that is currently having us service them on certain back office processes out of India—and there are other processes that they want to run out of Canada," he says.

The company offers both inbound and outbound calling, with services ranging from technical support to customer acquisition to collections. "There are certain areas where we are very proficient," Kaul says. "We are very, very proficient in VoIP solutions—and we are very proficient in the area of offering helpdesk services."

TWS also offers a proprietary CRM solution, ARENA CRM, which Kaul says was specifically designed to minimize any latency issues associated with offshore outsourcing. "We can certainly use any CRM package that the client may want us to use, and clients often hook us into their own platforms—but to the degree that they're interested in our platform, we certainly are in a position to provide one," he says.

Global diversity
TWS agents in both Canada and India, Kaul says, receive extensive training—though the training period in India is far longer. "In India, we add on a couple of weeks for voice, accent, culture and communication training," he says. "And in India, the agents tend to be younger people who are just starting in the workforce, so after the training, we tend to give them a couple of weeks of pre-production on-job training."

In contrast, Kaul says, most of the agents that TWS hires in Montreal have significant prior experience in the industry. "If the application is more geared towards technical resolution, then India is a pretty good location to center the operations—but if the customer requires a high level of negotiation and interactivity, then our center in Montreal becomes a very viable option," he says.

Kaul says the location in Montreal also enables TWS to offer support in a wide range of languages. "Montreal's a very interesting city," he says. "Because of the liberal immigration policy, we have native-born speakers who are proficient in Chinese, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and certainly—it goes without saying—French. So it's an excellent location for a company that has global needs."

One potential client that Kaul is currently talking to, he says, wants their English-language support handled out of India and their foreign-language support handled out of Montreal—and that's something that TWS can easily enable. "We have an integrated platform, so we can do skills-based routing, we can do language-based routing: that's one of the benefits that we can provide," he says.

Creative pricing
For ISPs, the typical range of services that TWS provides can include customer service, technical support, troubleshooting for chat and e-mail services, software support, webhosting support, web-based self-help services, and up-selling additional storage space for e-mail as well as other value added services—all via voice, e-mail, and chat.

Pricing for all services, Kaul says, is negotiable based on each client's needs. "We are big believers in gain-sharing," he says. "We really feel that we don't work for a client: we work with a client. It's a true partnership. And we're not just partnering and lowering our clients' costs—we can also identify re-engineering opportunities that can enhance client revenues."

As a result, pricing can be structured per call, per user, per minute, per hour, or in any other way that's agreeable to both parties. "We are very flexible, very creative, and very innovative in our pricing models—we don't approach pricing in a generic way," Kaul says. "We approach pricing in a very customized manner so that we can align the interests, grow the business, and have the right incentives."

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Related articles:
	[Dec. 27, 2002]	We Need Cheap Overnight Tech Support
	[Jan. 22, 2001]	When Your Help Desk is Distant
	[June 2, 2000]	Building an ISP Business Plan Part 4: Operating & Organizational Plans

Online resources:
	Outsourced Customer Support Directory
	Quick Reference Chart