CONVERGYS CORP. Providing service pays off
The Cincinnati-based company processes nearly 40 percent of all U.S. cell phone bills.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Cell phone owners, cable television subscribers and even callers to a national telethon for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have done business with Convergys Corp. and likely didn't even know it.
The Cincinnati-based company doesn't mind. It has become an industry leader by working behind the scenes -- handling customers, sales and other matters for various interests.
Convergys, which started by providing billing and marketing services for Cincinnati Bell Telephone Co., processes nearly 40 percent of all U.S. cell phone bills, about a third of the domestic cable market and six of the top 10 credit card issuers, company officials say.
It has grown from a cottage industry into a worldwide operation of call centers where some 44,000 employees make more than 1.7 million contacts a day by phone or Internet.
And it is increasing its share of human resource services, recently landing a multiyear contract with Florida.
Convergys' roots date to 1983, when then-parent Cincinnati Bell created a subsidiary, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, to handle data processing and billing, and another subsidiary, MATRIXX, for direct marketing and customer care.
Background
Using billing and customer care systems it created for its own use, Convergys began providing those services to other telecommunications companies.
Business boomed in the next decade until CBIS and MATRIXX represented about half of Cincinnati Bell's revenue.
The two subsidiaries were combined and spun off as Convergys in August 1998. After years of steady, double-digit growth, it is a leader in the call center industry, operating out of 46 sites in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Israel and Asia.
Convergys' biggest competitors for the estimated $21.5 billion that U.S. companies spend on billing, and the $125 billion spent on outsourced customer care, are Denver-based TeleTech; West Corp. in Omaha; and Sitel Corp., based in Baltimore.
Convergys produces 1.5 million bills a day for about 120 million subscribers to telephone, Internet, satellite and cable services.
Clients include nearly 300 companies such as AT & amp;T and the Baby Bells, American Express, Procter & amp; Gamble, Toys 'R' Us and Wal-Mart.
Last year, Convergys had record earnings of $215.5 million on record revenues of $2.3 billion.
"They were the first guys out, but that's not the only reason why they're on top," said Hampton Adams, an analyst with CIBC World Markets Corp. in San Francisco.
"They've not only built their own systems, they've invested heavily in research and development and acquisitions over the years."
Growth
Convergys has spent $450 million on research and development since 1998 and has 59 patents or patents-pending for such things as performance monitoring, call transaction processing and electronic message management.
Continuing to grow beyond its base of billing and customer care, Convergys took a leap forward in August by landing a seven-year, $280 million contract to provide human resource services for Florida.
Starting in May, when a 15-month phase-in period begins, state employees' inquiries about jobs, benefits or other human resource questions will go to a Convergys representative, part of Florida's privatization of work formerly done by a state agency.
Convergys already handles employee services for General Electric, Pfizer and other big companies.