Service Source: Serving The World With Their Team Of Multilingual Tech-Savvy Greater KL Talent - Americas

Service Source: Serving The World With Their Team Of Multilingual Tech-Savvy Greater Kuala Lumpur Talent

ServiceSource, a Nasdaq-listed revenue lifecycle solution provider, has been able to tap on Greater KL to serve its global operations. A support centre established in Malaysia in 2010 with 30 employees has grown on the back of a high-level of performance to a current headcount of 700 employees that serves 26 global clients across the world says Gnaneswaran S, vice president of operation services for ServiceSource International Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Revenue lifecycle management is a framework for growing and retaining revenue from existing customers. As a revenue lifecycle management solution provider, ServiceSource offers unique technological solutions that help companies with the difficult tasks of customer on-boarding, adoption, upsell and cross-sell, and retention and renewal. ServiceSource services are available in 40 languages and in 150 countries and its impressive customer base includes leading technology companies such as Avaya, SAP, Microsoft and Red Hat.

“Asia Pacific is quickly becoming a hub for global enterprise expansion. To serve our clients well and assist them in meeting their customer growth and retention targets and to offer revenue lifecycle management solutions to businesses that want to enter this market, ServiceSource needed to build its capabilities in this region by leveraging on regional expertise and language capabilities. In the Asia Pacific region, ServiceSource has offices in Greater KL, Singapore, Yokohama and the Philippines,” says Gnaneswaran.

To deliver unparalleled success for ServiceSources’ global clients and their customers, employees must be able to perform at a high level. “As a company that aims to grow the revenue of other businesses, we must be able to deliver. The B2B (business to business) industry is quickly evolving into an outcome-driven economy and revenue lifecycle management is at the forefront. So we need to innovate and deliver measureable outcomes to stay competitive. The company and our local talent is young, dynamic and open to new ideas, new ways of doing things.”

“There is no room for mediocrity when offering a service globally as there is always another company or another country that is waiting and capable of doing more and doing better. Our employees, of whom 97% are Malaysians, are well aware of the need to perform and surpass expectation and they willingly met this challenge. They have proven themselves to senior management within ServiceSource and we have been given the opportunity to do more for the company,” says Gnaneswaran.

When ServiceSource started operations in Malaysia seven years ago, they were given the mandate to provide back-office sales administrative functions known internally as operations services. Last year, a strategic decision was made globally to allow the team in Greater KL to take on sales roles. “We have been able to grow on the back of high-performing multilingual talent that are tech-savvy. This seems like a formidable task but our partnership with InvestKL has been very beneficial in addressing this need. We had an aggressive recruitment plan and had specific language proficiency requirements. We also wanted high-calibre talent that are willing to take on the challenges of working for a global company and adopt a global mind-set. InvestKL was able to connect us to the right places to look for such talent and this was a crucial step in building the team that we have today,” says Gnaneswaran.

ServiceSource Malaysia hires both fresh graduates and experienced professionals and have been able to hire talent that speak Japanese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Korean, all the Chinese dialects besides English and Bahasa Malaysia. Gnaneswaran also notes that they have also been able find people with very niche technical skills, a feat that delighted the team in the US.

The opportunity to take on a global sales function is testimony to the local talent’s capabilities, he adds. “This is an opportunity to further add value to the company and to develop the breadth and scope of the local team. In a global arena, it is crucial to stay relevant. This means that we must take up new challenges. A global sales function is definitely more demanding, as employees are required to speak eloquently in different languages as well as rationalise their proposals. Some of our employees have already requested to move into this new role and I am excited to see how much more we can do as a team,” says Gnaneswaran.

Although majority of ServiceSource’s local employees are millennials, the company has not experienced a high turnover of staff, a challenge often reported by many companies with young employees. Gnaneswaran attributes the low attrition rate to a holistic structured talent development training programme and the company’s family-like culture and approach towards working as a team.

Excellent Talent Meets Extraordinary Opportunities

ServiceSource focuses on growing. Their clients and customers grow, their employees grow and so do their communities. Its website speaks of this commitment. “Make a difference in the lives of people across the globe, promote customer success and benefit from crazy-awesome employee opportunities,” says the page dedicated to career opportunities at ServiceSource’s corporate website.

Gnaneswaran says the talent development culture adopted globally by the company contributes to its low attrition rate. “From our experience, millennials are willing to challenge themselves if they see an opportunity for growth and development and to build a career. We have had employees request to do more when the opportunities arises. So as an organisation, we created opportunities for them to move up and supported them with structured training programmes which are implemented globally.”

To be the employer of choice, the company looks to promote internally and employees know that they will receive training when they take on bigger roles. For example, new team leaders are given ‘leader training programmes’ and new managers receive specially designed training development programmes.

Gnaneswaran also finds that millennials are attracted to and thrive in a family-oriented culture. “Millennials are driven by how well their team works together, how supported and appreciated they feel, and how much possibility they have. They enjoy the family-feel that we serving the world with their team of multilingual tech-savvy Greater Kl talent practice here. Furthermore, we give them a bigger purpose. They know that they have to work and deliver as a team and that their performance can determine if the entire company in Malaysia is able to compete regionally, even globally. It is not just about doing “my” job. It is about delivering as a team, as a company,” says Gnaneswaran.

ServiceSource has also implemented initiatives aimed at building a community spirit and to encourage employees to look out for each other. Employees are allowed to take a day off every year to participate as a volunteer in a good cause. “We also started a global employee assistance fund where every ServiceSource employee can contribute towards a fund. The money in this fund is given to an employee in any part of the world that may need it. It is an employee for employee initiative and builds upon the family environment that we practice here,” he says.

Cutting-Edge Technology

The IT team in ServiceSource’s local outfit has also made a name for themselves by providing general and technical support to other sites such as Sofia, Manila and Yokohama. Gnaneswaran talks about nurturing a culture of innovation among employees. “Employees are encouraged to automate tools, processes and areas that are manually transacted. This allows us to be faster, better and more effective at value-added task,” he says.

Moving forward, ServiceSource is looking at offering more leading-edge capabilities in revenue lifecycle management solutions. This is in the field of predictive analytics, the latest buzzword in the global tech industry. “We are looking at the ability to use big data for actionable customer insights. This requires predictive data science and algorithms and it is really at the forefront of revenue lifecycle management. If we are able to prove ourselves in the new sales role, there is little reason why we cannot be part of new innovations and new solutions. There is no limit as to how big the local centre in Greater KL can be. We just need to keep performing and the team here is ready to do more,” says Gnaneswaran.

Source : The Edge Malaysia