EGS Joins Alorica “Insanity”—But Does it Help Fulfill Omnichannel Vision?

Alorica’s mandate to provide “insanely great customer service” is a spot-on mantra, if a little cheesy.

The question is whether the service provider can pivot to adequately provide insanely great customer service to the customer of the future amid extensive expansion. With the dust just settling on the 2014 acquisition of West, Alorica has announced it is acquiring EGS. Alorica will again take a significant leap in scale, boosting it into the top-three service providers, at approximately $2.3 billion in revenue. The acquisition opens doors for growth because there is minimal client overlap and lots of cross-selling possibilities. EGS also brings a very strong healthcare focus, which will significantly boost services for payers, pharmaceuticals, healthcare providers, devices and insurance companies. EGS will also provide a much-needed European presence to further service Alorica clients.

This is the latest in a clear trend around large consolidations within the contact center industry, but we know that bigger isn’t always better.

When NCO and APAC formed to create EGS in 2012 it had a similar impact in terms of scale, with reported combined revenues of $2 billion, but struggled with brand identity (it has since divested parts of the business on the accounts receivable management side to focus on customer contact and first-party collections, trimming down to $1.1 billion). Alorica will need to show the differentiation it can create from this acquisition outside of scale, in particular around the looming challenge of omnichannel and digital interactions, especially where both of these providers are voice-heavy contact center operators.

We admire Alorica’s bold and differentiated approach to talent management and its residual impact on customer experience. The provider will need to infuse the EGS culture with this passionate enthusiasm for customer experience. As we noted in our recent Contact Center Operations Blueprint, Execution Powerhouse Alorica has some fantastic leadership and a stand-out talent management strategy, with some work to do in the innovation department. While this is positive move on the whole for Alorica, time will tell whether the combined organizations will help drive innovation in this market that needs to focus on omnichannel capabilities.