Convergys IMG and CMG to become separate entities...at last?

For years there have been rumors that Convergys was looking to split its Information Management Group billing business from its Customer Management Group care, HR and call center businesses, and now it appears that those rumors may finally materialize The potential split of the two businesses has been an ongoing topic of conversation among carriers and Convergys’ competitors for several years now, driven in part by the different structures of the businesses: Convergys’ call center and HR businesses are a multi-vertical and globally oriented, whereas the IMG business has been predominantly communications industry focused. Over the years, Convergys has placed substantial effort and resources into creating a unified business structure that would allow for a more unified back office/front office technology and service offering, and developed/refined several solutions that were applicable across both business lines.

Needless to say, there are different target audiences for the two solution areas, and while traditional back office and front office solutions need to be better integrated, Convergys’ customer facing business is much broader than traditional telecommunications CRM. Secondly, the business models are different, when you consider a licensed based software or outsourced software model versus a seat based call center service. This creates a challenge in creating a unified pricing strategy for a combined solution, especially for CSPs that may have their own call center operation managed internally or are currently working with another outsourced call center provider.

Before any business split is final, it is our opinion that Convergys should review all standalone technology assets within CMG directly tied to the order-to-cash-to-care process to determine the benefit of aligning them more closely with IMG for communications-centric offers. The growing importance of business intelligence as a key piece of any carrier’s order-to-cash-to-care process should drive Convergys to look at customer acquisition and retention solutions as important components of any IMG solution sell. This would strengthen Convergys IMG’s position amongst its competitors, and help to create a unique telco-centric solution that can be offered as a license-based or outsourced solution, something that many of its competitors can’t offer without external third party support.