Firstsource

Firstsource Solutions Limited

Type	Public company[1] BSE: 532809 NSE: FSL
Industry	Business process management
Founded	2001
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Key people	Sanjiv Goenka (Executive Chairman) Rajesh Subramaniam (CEO & MD)
Services	Business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing
Revenue	₹32,303million (US$328million) (2016)
Net income	₹2,650million (US$497million) (2016)
Number of employees	23,900+ (2016)[2]
Website	www.firstsource.com

Firstsource Solutions Limited is a provider of business process outsourcing services headquartered in Mumbai, India and a Public Listed Company on the NSE and BSE as of 2007. Firstsource provides customized business process management to customers in the banking and financial services, customer services, telecom and media, and healthcare sectors. Its clients include Fortune 500 financial services, telecommunications and healthcare companies. Firstsource has operations in India, US, Ireland, UK, and Philippines. It was formerly ICICI OneSource^[3] however is now an RP Sanjiv Goenka group company, as was taken over by Sanjiv Goenka.

History

Firstsource started its operations in 2001 as ICICI InfoTech Upstream Ltd, a business process outsourcing organisation wholly owned by ICICI Bank, India’s largest private financial services organisation. Its name was changed to Firstsource Solutions Limited in 2006 and in 2007 became a public company listed on the Indian Stock Exchange. Through organic growth and acquisitions alike, it has established itself in the Telecom & Media, Banking & Financial Services, Insurance and Healthcare (Payer and Provider) industry verticals. Currently it delivers Customer Management, Transaction Processing and Collections Management services from centers in the UK, US, Philippines, India and Sri Lanka.

Structure

Firstsource is a part of the RP Sanjiv Goenka group, a £1.21 billion conglomerate. All Firstsource group entities operate independently and the accounts are consolidated at a group level. The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group owns close to 56% shares of Firstsource through a subsidiary.^[4][5][6]

Public offer

Firstsource made a public offer in February 2007 and was listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India on February 22, 2007. The public issue was for 69,300,000 equity Shares of Rs.10 each for cash at a price of Rs.64 per equity share (which includes a share premium of Rs.54 per equity share), aggregating Rs. 4,435.2 million. The issue has received 358,329 applications for 3,417,911,555 equity shares, resulting in 49.32 times subscription.^[2][7][8]

Major shareholders in Firstsource include Spen Liq Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of CESC Limited (55.54%), ICICI Bank Limited (4.76%), Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (3.49%), Steinberg India Emerging Opportunities Fund Limited (1.75%), Goldman Sachs India Fund Limited (2.75%), and Remaining 31.71% of shareholding is widely held among Financial Institutions, Public and Mutual Funds.^[2][9]

Operations

International subsidiaries

Firstsource operates in various geographies through its overseas subsidiaries and branch offices. As on March 2015, the company had 12 subsidiaries. The below list includes parent, sister, holding and associated company relationships, joint ventures and other affiliated companies.^[10]

• Firstsource Solutions UK Limited, UK (Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) of the Company)
  • Firstsource Solutions S.A., Argentina (Subsidiary of Firstsource Solutions UK Limited)
• Firstsource Group USA, Inc., USA (WOS of the Company)
  • MedAssist Holding LLC, USA* (WOS of Firstsource Group USA, Inc.)
    • Firstsource Solutions USA, LLC, USA (WOS of MedAssist Holding LLC)
      • Firstsource Transaction Services, LLC, USA (WOS of Firstsource Solutions USA, LLC)
  • Firstsource Business Process Services, LLC, USA (WOS of Firstsource Group USA, Inc.)
    • Firstsource Advantage LLC, USA (WOS of Firstsource Business Process Services, LLC)
    • One Advantage LLC, USA** (WOS of Firstsource Business Process Services, LLC)
• Firstsource BPO Ireland Limited (WOS of the Company)
• Firstsource Dialog Solutions (Private) Limited (Subsidiary of the Company)

Domestic subsidiaries

• Anunta Tech Infrastructure Services Limited (Wholly Owned Subsidiary of the Company)

ISGN Acquisition

Firstsource further expanded with the acquisition of ISGN in 2016. ISGN is a leading provider of end-to-end technology solutions and services to the U.S. mortgage industry. The BPO division provides Origination, Servicing, Title and Valuation Services to many banks and non-bank lenders in the US. The division employs over 700 employees working out of 2 locations in the US and 1 location in India who have now become a part of the Firstsource group.^[11][12][13]

Products

Firstsource recent products include:

• First Customer Intelligence (FCI) is a customer interaction analytics solution that measures customer emotions, sentiments and behaviour across multiple communication channels and provides actionable insights across products, processes, operational analytics and web strategies.
• First Chat^[14] is an online customer engagement solution from Firstsource that employs an approach to improve the customer experience. First Chat enables real-time person-to-person communication through live chat, promotes self-service and attempts to convert online visitors into customers.
• First Smartomation^[15] is a process automation solution that uses non-invasive technology to integrate diverse applications on their native platforms. The aim of FirstSmartomation is to boost agent productivity, increase accuracy and enhance customer experience.
• First Resolve^[16] is a remediation solution for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reportable complaints.
• First WF Suite^[17] is a workforce management (WFM) product that aims to reduce operating costs, improve efficiencies through a strategic balance of workforce and customer interaction management. First WF Suite comprises WFM Consulting, Capability Development and Managed Services offerings that aim to improve customer experience and long-term value creation.

Corporate social responsibility

During FY15-16, the Company spent an amount of ₹26.29 million, being 2%^[2] of the average net profits of the Company for the last 3 years on CSR activities as mentioned in Firstsource’s CSR Policy. Out of the said amount, the majority of the amount has been contributed by Firstsource towards the corpus of the CSR Trust, to be spent by the CSR Trust on the focus areas as mentioned in the Firstsource CSR policy. Besides the focus areas of engagement, Firstsource and its subsidiaries also voluntarily undertake various CSR activities.

Recognition

2016

• Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards 2016 - ‘Best B-school recruiting programme’, ‘Organisation with Innovative HR Practices’, ‘Best HR Strategy in line with Business’^[18]
• Business In The Community Northern Ireland Awards 2016 ^[19] -Employer of Choice 2016
• Welsh Contact Centre Awards 2016> - 'Outsourced Contact Centre of The Year'^[20]

2015

• Welsh Contact Centre Awards 2015 - 'Outsourced Contact Centre of the Year.'^[21]
• National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Showcase 2015 for HR Best Practices - HR Best Practice Award 2015 ^[22]

2014

• Verint Technologies - Received the “Innovator of the Year” for Excellence in Voice of Customer Analytics.^[23] in 2014.
• National Outsourcing Association’s Outsourcing Professional Awards - Received two awards for: “Best Outsourced Customer Service Team” and “Best Business Process Outsourcing” in partnership with giffgaff."NOA's outsourcing professional awards winners' announcement" (PDF). Noa.co.uk. Retrieved September 10, 2016. 

See also

References