Webhelp - Company Analysis

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Webhelp - Company Analysis

Key Takeaways

  • Webhelp was founded in the year 2000 by Olivier Duha and Frédéric Jousset in Paris, and it is a leading business process outsourcing and customer experience company. The company offers its services across all market levels and targets clients of all sizes.
  • Webhelp describes itself as a "people-first company" made up of fun-loving individuals. The company also prides itself on having an outstanding work environment. The company's motto, "think human," is applied all across the organization's operations.
  • Webhelp has been pursuing aggressive expansion in recent years. The company has focused its latest efforts on penetrating new markets through various acquisitions, investments, and partnerships. Through these rapid expansions, Webhelp is attempting to solidify its position as the European market leader for customer experience (CX) and advance its objective to be among the top 3 players in the industry globally.

Introduction

Insights have been compiled that help describes Webhelp's vision, organizational culture, and current services. Also, a detailed analysis of the company's rating on Glassdoor, its media perception, and brand execution have been included in this report. Additionally, an overview of recent business expansions has been provided in this report.

Company Vision

  • Webhelp was founded in the year 2000 by Olivier Duha and Frédéric Jousset in Paris, France. The company was originally created as a real-time support service before expanding into business support and call center operations services.
  • By 2020, the company had expanded to over 50 countries and serves about 1,300 brands daily. Webhelp has remained a private entity all through its history despite acquiring 22 companies so far.
  • In 2020, Webhel rebranded the company's image and redefined its vision statements. According to the organization, Webhelp is driven by its "vision to make business more human."


Services Offered

Webhelp offers a variety of services to its clients. The company's services are delivered across 11 categories. The categories and the services provided via each are listed below:
  • Commercial Assistance: This includes its customer service, complaint and claims management, crisis and disruption management, and loyalty management services.
  • Healthcare Services: This includes its patient support programs and pharmaceutical promotion and sales services.
  • Enterprise Services: This includes its B2B sales services, B2B care services, help desk and technical support services, and reverse logistics services.
  • Digital Services: This includes its content moderation services, content management, data annotation, digital activation, and community management services.
  • Payment Services: This includes its credit management, online payment management services, and debt collection services.
  • Legal Services: This includes its legal claims management services, privacy and legal services, and Know Your Customer (KYC) services.
  • Technical Support Services: The company offers only technical support under this category. The company provides multilingual tech support for B2B, B2C, and B2E clients.
  • Sales: This includes its customer acquisition services, sales assistance, onboarding, customer retention, and upselling and cross-selling services.
  • Consulting Services: This includes its transformation program delivery services, digital strategy and UX services, and customer journey design services.
  • Analytics and Managed Services: This includes its customer insight services, analytics services, customer operations services, and people services.
  • Technology services: This includes its contact center technology services, automation services, and digital technology services.

Brand Values and Positioning

  • The company's motto is "think human," and the philosophy is applied all across the organization. According to the company, "think human" means putting people first and empowering each person with the tools needed to grow and thrive.
  • The company believes in "going the extra mile" for its staff, clients, and customers, as the effort enables it to keep evolving and reaching new heights. Webhelp also presents itself as a "game-changer" in the industry, encouraging its employees to be creative and innovate, even at the risk of failing. According to the company's website, its brand values are commitment, unity, integrity, recognition, and striving to "WOW" its clients.
  • On the other hand, the company also portrays itself as a market leader in the industry, especially in Europe. In a recent corporate statement released by the company, Webhelp stated that it is aiming for a global leadership position. In 2019, it reported revenue totaling €1.5 billion. In 2020, Webhelp declared that it generated over €1.6 billion, with plans to generate $2.4 billion by year-end 2021 and €3 billion by 2024.
  • Webhelp offers its services across all market levels and targets clients of all sizes. It is present at the top-level, mid-level, and lower level of the industry. The company's top-level clients and global firms such as Google and Amazon make up 26% of its revenue. Mid-level clients and multinationals such as Samsung and HBO make up another 18% of its revenue. Lower-level firms and local companies make up 56% of its portfolio.
  • In addition, the company positions itself as a thought leader in the customer experience (CX) and business solutions industry. It regularly publishes white papers and articles on various issues affecting the industry. Between June 2020 and September 2021, Webhelp published at least two whitepapers relating to managing business process operations in the post-pandemic era.


Company Culture

  • Webhelp supports its staff members in several ways. The company provides educational tools to facilitate the professional and personal development of its employees. It also ensures that staff members feel welcome at the organization. According to information provided on its website, the company loves diversity, and "everyone is welcome" to be a part of the organization.
  • The company's third pillar in its people policy is inspiring its workforce. Webhelp ensures that great leadership and communication exist at all levels. The firm also encourages its staff members to be involved in the organizational process and partake in the company's journey.

Glassdoor Review

  • Webhelp has received over 1,900 reviews on its page, and the company maintains a fair rating on Glassdoor. Overall, 72% of employees approve of the CEO, 53% will recommend the company to a friend, and 40% believe the business has a positive outlook.

Top Positive Perceptions

  • The top pros for the company include learning about cloud technology, a great working environment, nice offices, and good communication practices in the organization. In addition, employees indicated that they appreciated the free sky service and 20% staff discount offered to employees of the company.
  • Employees also rated the company above average on culture & values, and diversity & inclusion.


Top Negative Perceptions

  • Employees also rated the company below average in career opportunities, senior management, and compensation and benefits.

Media perception

The news media holds a neutral-to-positive perception of Webhelp. The company has not been involved in any scandal in the last two years.
  • In December 2020, Forbes did an interview with Dirk van Leeuwen, the CEO of Webhelp, where it described the company as the leader in outsourced customer relations in Europe. In the interview, Dirk van Leeuwen disclosed that Webhelp's ambition is to be in the global "top three in the sector within five to seven years."
  • Webhelp also actively works to avoid media backlash. In April 2021, the company began negotiating a secret employment regulation order (ERO) to lay off 501 employees in Spain. Soon after, union representatives found out and publicly challenged the ERO, stating that Webhelp had no reason to embark on such a decision as it was able to increase its revenue by 23% in the previous fiscal year.
  • Upon realizing that its application for ERO would be challenged by union representatives, Webhelp backtracked on half of the proposed layoffs to avoid further confrontation. In an official statement to Ara News, the company added that it would facilitate relocations to other divisions instead and encourage voluntary departures.

Brand Execution

  • Webhelp also regularly shares its ideas using videos on YouTube. It also occasionally uses the YouTube platform to promote its ads.

Recent Business Expansions

Webhelp has made multiple business expansion moves with at least three new acquisitions this year and a total of 14 in the past five years. Its primary motive for these expansion efforts is to become a global leader in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market.

Groupe Bruxelles Lambert Invests in Webhelp

  • The deal, which was sealed in November 2019, allowed Webhelp’s co-founders Olivier Duha and Frédéric Jousset to retain their roles on the firm’s management team and to continue in their capacities as founding executive directors.
  • The acquisition would help maintain and accelerate Webhelp’s “organic and external growth strategy.” It will also launch the firm into a new phase of “growth and investment” opportunities.
  • GBL’s input will help move Webhelp from being a European champion to becoming a global leader.

Webhelp Acquires Onelink

  • Earlier this year, Webhelp acquired Onelink, a customer experience and BPO provider, at an undisclosed amount.
  • Webhelp will also tap into Onelink’s clientele, which includes top tech brands in e-commerce, fintech, fitness tech, and payment apps across the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
  • According to Webhelp Group Managing Director Sandrine Asseraf, Onelink will help expand Webhelp’s footprint in hyper-growth tech sectors in the US, such as fintech.

Webhelp Partners with Microsoft

  • In April 2021, Webhelp partnered with Microsoft to create 200 jobs in Cairo, Egypt.
  • The purpose of this partnership is to acquire talent for Webhelp’s Egypt business, improving the branch’s employee count to 1000 by the end of 2021 and over 4,000 over by 2024.
  • The partnership will be beneficial to the improvement, growth, and prosperity of both parties in the region.

Webhelp Acquires Dynamicall

  • The purpose of this acquisition is to penetrate the Latin American market and expand its services to “local and international Spanish-speaking markets and North America.”
  • Previously Webhelp only had operations on the premises of its clients in Latin America (LatAm). However, with the acquisition of Dynamicall, the firm now owns two sites in the region.
  • Webhelp merged Dynamicall with its existing Spanish team, which is now led by its SpanishCEO, Julio Jolin.

Webhelp Acquires Runway BPO

  • In May 2018, Webhelp acquired majority shares in the nearshore firm, Runway BPO. The details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.
  • This acquisition is another geographical expansion effort to help Webhelp become a global leader. Runway’s founder, Nils Sundling, and CEO, Uldis Prieditis, continue to lead the team in the region.

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