User:JeanDupont2020/Comdata Group

Comdata Group is a customer management outsourcing company, headquartered in Italy and operating in over 20 countries. Its portfolio of services covers outsourcing of customer interactions and processes, digital and technology solutions, and customer experience consulting.

Founded in 1987 as a family business, Comdata Group is now one of the top 10 global customer management BPO companies. It is market leader in Italy and one of the top three players in France, offering end-to-end solutions on all the major customer management processes, both front-office and back-office: acquisition, loyalty, customer service, technical assistance and collection.

Key figures and footprint
Comdata has over 50,000 employees worldwide, and achieved turnover of around €1 billion in 2019. Its 670-plus customers include blue-chip companies and household names.

The Group has operations in 20-plus countries in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Indian Ocean, and major sectors include communications, media & entertainment; utilities, financial services, manufacturing and e-commerce & retail.

Management
Chairman of the Group is Massimo Canturi, who was Group CEO from 2011 to 2019. In 2020, Maxime Didier was appointed as Group CEO, having joined Comdata in 2017 as CEO for France. He has extensive experience in the BPO-customer management sector in France and internationally, and will help the Group leverage the changes driven by technology innovation in customer management.

The Group’s Executive Committee come from across Europe and beyond, and bring extensive international experience.

History
Comdata was founded in Turin, Italy in 1987, offering document management and archiving services. During the 1990s, it expanded its operations, focusing on business process management for customers in different sectors.

Growth has been both organic and through acquisitions. From 2011, the business grew significantly, expanding its services and increasing its footprint across Romania, Turkey, Czech Republic and Argentina.

In 2016, private equity firm Carlyle Group acquired a majority shareholding in the business. Announcing the deal, Carlyle Europe Partners noted the company’s strong business model and its potential for international growth.

Following the deal with Carlyle Group, Comdata’s revenues grew threefold – from €298m in 2014 to approx. €1 billion in 2019, due in part to acquisitions and sales growth in Latin America, Spain and Turkey.

In 2017, Comdata acquired from Izium Group its 100% stake in B2S, one of the top players in France in CRM outsourcing, along with BCust, Colorado Conseil and CMS (offering technology solutions, CRM consulting and B2B credit collection, respectively). The deal extended Comdata’s footprint to France, Morocco and Madagascar, and positioned Comdata among the top five players in the sector in Europe; it also saw Maxime Didier, founder of B2S, and his team joining Comdata Group.

Comdata further strengthened its position in the French and European marketplace in 2018 with the acquisition of CCA International, one of the leading groups in BPO/CRM in France with a €164 million turnover and sites in 12 countries.

Technology and digital transformation
Comdata Group has described the COVID-19 pandemic as ‘a powerful accelerator of digital transformation’ – not just in sectors such as e-commerce and retail, but across sectors from health to education and across the entire customer journey.

The pandemic also saw Comdata Group itself effect its own technology transformation. In 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group moved quickly to a new home delivery model in customer BPO, in order to ensure continuity of service for its clients. In less than a month, and across all its geographies, the Group migrated around 30,000 employees – around 70% of its workforce – to home-working, to protect the health and safety of staff and to maintain service to clients.

Building on this emergency response, the Group recognized the opportunity to deliver a permanent home delivery model. It launched Comdata Smart Hub, a connected virtual delivery model which allows many Comdata Group employees to work from home, while still offering integrated operations management, customer service and data security.

Awards and certification
Recent awards and certifications include the following.

Nel 2020, Comdata è stata riconosciuta come Leader nei servizi di Customer Experience per il settore dei media e delle telecomunicazioni nel rapporto globale NEAT di Nelson Hall. Il rapporto ha evidenziato la sua capacità di comprendere le esigenze dei clienti e ridefinire i loro processi "grazie al suo mix di risorse altamente specializzate e soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche per le esigenze attuali e le aspettative future."

It was also recognized as a Leader in Customer Experience Management in EMEA in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix Assessment in 2020. The assessment recognized it as a leader for its client portfolio mix and value provided to clients; also for its vision and strategic ability to match clients’ needs and invest in innovation.

Comdata Group won two awards in Brazil’s Premio ClienteSA 2020 awards which honour best practice and excellence in customer relationship management. The awards were based on its expertise in quality and speech analytics.

It was also recognized by Turkey’s Ministry of Industry and Technology as an R&D Center in 2020. And it was ranked as one of the 15 top best companies to work for in Africa in 2021, in the “Best Places to Work” certification program. Rankings were based on employees’ assessment of factors such as leadership, inclusive culture, commitment to professional development and sense of community.