Concentrix’s Tigerspike Acquisition Adds Digital Design

“Improving people’s lives through technology.”

This is not typically a phrase you would associate with Concentrix. This mantra is now part of the service provider, however, as Concentrix acquired the company Tigerspike, which was founded on this phrase 14 years ago. Tigerspike is an enterprise mobility design and engineering company with specialties in crafting user experiences for a range of enterprise applications. This acquisition helps scale Concentrix’s efforts to develop this capability organically. When Concentrix acquired the customer care and business process services from IBM, it lost its access to the design and digital technology and partnerships that were in place there. We hear from business process services clients that they are increasingly looking to their service providers for guidance, ideas, and capability along these lines. The acquisition addresses this point to help Concentrix to deliver on its overall mission for effortless, personalized customer engagements. What brings these two companies together is the corporate ethos – the focus on customer experience.

Concentrix recently briefed HfS on this July 2017 acquisition. Here’s what we found interesting about it:

• Experience within enterprise operations. Tigerspike has cultivated an interesting portfolio of experience in enterprise mobility, going beyond the typical, front-end, customer facing web and mobile interfaces. Its user experience design and strategy work has led it deep into different areas of enterprise operations, including back office processes. It has several examples of improving technology experiences for not just its clients’ end customers, but also employees, partners, and suppliers. As an example, for the State Government of Victoria, Tigerspike achieved a 300% improvement around payment processing time by taking a paper-based process and migrating it to digital. The result also has better compliance for the department. HfS would like to see how this acquisition can marry the capabilities of the organizations to bring this type of digitization and impact for end-to-end processes such as those that Concentrix manages.

• Design Thinking methodology. Tigerspike uses a methodology called Catalyst to facilitate the initial brainstorming, planning, and prioritizing sessions with clients. This uses a Design Thinking approach to help clients test hypotheses, identify assumptions, and prioritize among competing digital projects. Its key differentiator, according to Concentrix leadership, is the way that it involves various client stakeholders and aims at bridging the gap between silos at client organizations. This methodology, if used right, can be the starting point for Concentrix to have more meaningful discussions with its business services clients around customer engagement. Concentrix will need to look for ways to integrate or bridge Catalyst with continuous improvement and action plans that carry out projects in a way that integrates into the on-going business operations in order to drive scale and impact beyond what Tigerspike could do on its own. Concentrix has been working to “differentiate by design” and bring a design-oriented approach to its work, and this acquisition brings more credibility and capability with experienced designers, engineers, and frameworks.

• Data integration and visualization is part and parcel. Tigerspike has developed its own Intelligence platform that includes data integration, analysis, and visualization for key stakeholders. It is included as a part of every solution deployed, and aims to solve the never-ending questions about the ROI and impact of mobility projects with real-time data. This is a capability that Concentrix currently lacks, and could leverage to embed within larger engagements. There is also the potential for Concentrix to bring some of Tigerspike’s IP into the service provider’s platform ecosystem, such as GIAS for insurance.

This acquisition could be a good fit, as both companies note the similarity in cultures – a critical aspect of success for any acquisition. Tigerspike’s collaborative and transparent work culture, with “boot camps” and “lunch on Fridays,” is a team-oriented way to engage people in the business. A Concentrix executive noted that Tigerspike and Concentrix offices have culture and values statements on their walls, and he could map the same tenets in about 80% of the statements.

Concentrix has built its business on the solid foundation of its core contact center business, has added scale and skill with last year’s Minacs acquisition, and has honed some interesting front-office omnichannel and marketing capabilities. With the core foundation of customer care at the heart if its expertise, Concentrix has the advantage of knowing its clients’ customers inside and out. Now with Tigerspike’s focus on enterprise mobility, Concentrix has the opportunity to bring new solutions to clients in the digital realm, specifically in how to create process efficiencies and provide clients a way to enhance the user experience for digital initiatives.

However, we see a lack of clarity in terms of the ways in which to leverage Tigerspike’s capabilities across the broader Concentrix portfolio. It will need to earn its “tiger stripes” over time as it thinks through ways in which to bring the user experience design and strategy capabilities into its customer care business. It’s early on in discussions with existing clients with their cross-sell strategy, and we hope to hear more focused and detailed strategy as the new combined entity finds all of its synergies. One area that will be crucial to exploit will be its relationships with key partners like Apple and Telstra, which have served to grow the Tigerspike business through referrals. This is also a huge opportunity to have an impact on clients from a different angle—by having the ability to embrace front to back office with the aim of digital design.

The Bottom-line: Tigerspike gives Concentrix some mobility muscle to start a conversation in digital design

Mobility is a smart place to make a bet for going digital with Concentrix, given the industries of focus – healthcare, insurance, and travel. Tigerspike adds an engineering, human-centered design, and user experience capability that was lacking at the service provider. Clients should consider how they can tap into this unique combination and Concentrix will need to think outside the box to take full advantage of what this opportunity presents.