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Case Five: TalkTalk and CCI Transform a Supplier into a Partner

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South Africa’s BPO Service Advantage

Part of the book series: Technology, Work and Globalization ((TWG))

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Abstract

About TalkTalk: The company provides pay television, telecommunications, Internet access, and mobile network services to businesses and consumers in the UK. In 2012 the company earned £1.7 billion in revenue and generated a net profit of £138 million. By 2013 it had over 4 million customers, representing 20% of UK market share. Through its investments in own local telephone exchanges, TalkTalk can reach 95% of the country’s households.1

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Notes

  1. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  2. Our prior research on transforming ITO and BPO relationships spans multiple research projects. Most recently, we have identified best practices in the context of legal, financial and accounting, human resources, cloud, and supply chain services. See Lacity, M., Willcocks, P., and Burgess, A. (2014), The Rise of Legal Services Outsourcing, Bloomsbury Publishing, London;

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  3. Lacity, M., and Willcocks, P. (2012), Advanced Outsourcing Practice: Rethinking ITO, BPO, and Cloud Services, Palgrave, London.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Willcocks, L., Venters, W. and Whitley, E. (2014) Moving To The Cloud Corporation. Palgrave, London and 15 practice papers written for Accenture (see our research on high-performance BPO, available at http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/highperfbpo/Pages/home.aspx.

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  5. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  8. See Lacity, M., and Willcocks, L. (2012), “Mastering High-Performance: Collaborative BPO Governance”: http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/highperfbpo/Pages/key-sbehaviors.aspx#http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/highperfbpo/Pages/key-be-haviors.aspx.

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  9. Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. (2013), “Beyond Cost Savings: Outsourcing Business Processes for Innovation,” Sloan Management Review, 54(3), pp. 63–9.

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  10. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  13. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  14. From Lacity, M., and Willcocks, L. (2013) “Mastering High-Performance: Resolving Conflicts in Business Process Outsourcing Relationships”, available on http://www.umsl.edu/~lacitym/LacityWillcocksResolvingConflicts2013.pdf.

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  15. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  16. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  17. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  18. See Willcocks, L. and Lacity, M. (2012), “Mastering High Performance: Target Strategic Business Outcomes.” OU/Accenture, London.

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  19. Quotes from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  21. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  24. See Lacity, M., and Willcocks, L. (2012), “Mastering High-Performance: A holistic, end-to-end approach” LSE Outsourcing Unit working paper, www.outsourcingunit.org.

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  25. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  28. See Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. (2013), “Beyond Cost Savings: Outsourcing Business Processes for Innovation,” Sloan Management Review, 54(3), pp. 63–9.

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  29. Both quotes are from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  30. See Willcocks, L., Oshri, I., and Hindle, J. (2010). To Bundle or Not To Bundle? Effective Decision-Making for Business and IT Services. OU/Accenture, London.

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  31. A newer version is also available in Lacity, M., and Willcocks, P. (2012), Advanced Outsourcing Practice: Rethinking ITO, BPO, and Cloud Services, Palgrave, London. To understand the tradeoffs between bundling services and multi-sourcing, we studied over 1,850 outsourcing contracts, and carried out interviews with 69 leading clients and providers in ITO and BPO services. We identify 20 drivers to consider when deciding between bundled or unbundled ITO and BPO services. These drivers are grouped into five areas: client factors, relational factors, provider market factors, capabilities factors, and cost effectiveness characteristics, and they form the basis of a decision-making matrix designed for client use. From the research we also distill five profiles of clients more, or less, likely to buy bundled services: Strategic Explorer, Conservative, Operational Exploiter, Experimenter, and Multi-sourcer. This is a distinctive and new contribution to the understanding of clients and how they can continue to develop their ability to harness the ever increasing capabilities of business and IT service providers.

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  32. See Willcocks, L., Craig, A., and Lacity, M. (2012), “Becoming Strategic — South Africa’s BPO Service Advantage,” available at http://www.outsourcingunit.org/WorkingPapers/WP12_4.pdf.

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  33. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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  34. These notions arise from Transaction Cost Economics. See Williamson, O. (1991), “Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(2), pp. 269–96.

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  35. Quote from Lacity, M., Willcocks, L. and Craig, A. (2013) South Africa’s Maturing BPO Service Advantage: Case Studies of Success. Paper 13/2/. November, LSE Outsourcing Unit, London.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

    Leslie P. Willcocks

  2. University of Missouri, USA

    Mary C. Lacity

  3. Rame Associates, UK

    Andrew Craig

Authors
  1. Leslie P. Willcocks
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  2. Mary C. Lacity
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  3. Andrew Craig
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© 2015 Leslie P. Willcocks, Mary C. Lacity and Andrew Craig

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Willcocks, L.P., Lacity, M.C., Craig, A. (2015). Case Five: TalkTalk and CCI Transform a Supplier into a Partner. In: South Africa’s BPO Service Advantage. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137474056_9

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