(IDT) CSM on the move
Nicky Blackburn, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 15, 2004
Jerusalem's largest Anglo employer continues to expand
Janine Kutliroff, co-CEO of Customer Service Management (CSM), an IDT company, sits behind a desk in her very bare room. There's a cardboard box stuffed with business cards and other bits and pieces next to her, the shelves are empty and she has dust on her shoulder. Outside, a workman is just finishing up and packs up his tools to go, humming gently to himself in the echoing corridor.
"I'm sorry it's such a mess," says Kutliroff, a Canadian and mother of four, who made aliyah in March 2002, several months before she took charge of the company. "We moved offices just a few days ago and still haven't got everything straight."
This is the third time that Kutliroff has moved office in the last two years. She will probably move again before another year has passed. That's life at customer call center specialists CSM.
Since it was founded in July 2002, the company has grown from a modest staff of 20 to a massive 600 today - most of them new immigrants from the US and Europe.
Within half a year, Kutliroff hopes the company will have grown to 1,000 employees - making it one of the largest employers in the private sector in Jerusalem.
To cope with this rapid expansion, walls in the company's Har Hotzvim headquarters are torn down and offices made over on a startlingly regular basis.
CSM was the brainchild of American entrepreneur, Howard Jonas, an orthodox Jew who is the founder and chairman of the board at New York-based giant IDT, a $1.8 billion company that employs 3,800 people. IDT is the fourth largest telecommunications provider in the US.
In 2002, Jonas decided it was time to help Israel out. The country was reeling from a series of terror attacks and the worldwide recession was having a devastating impact on Israel's economy. Jonas decided to peel off jobs from IDT's call center in New York, which supported internal business at IDT and send them to Israel.
The CSM office opened on the last day of July 2002 and shortly afterwards Jonas hired two CEOs to take charge of the new company - 32-year-old Kutliroff, who set up leading Internet telephone company NET2Phone, one of IDT's early ventures, when she was just 24 and Joseph Shmidman, a former New York lawyer.
When Jonas came on a visit, he strode around the offices and announced that 20 people were not enough. "He said he wanted 1,000 employees, a profitable entity and to be the largest private sector employer in Jerusalem," Kutliroff reminisces.
Over the next two years, the company began to change its focus from an internal call center for IDT to a contract call center solution for businesses all over the world.
Today, 65 percent of the company's business is for IDT and 35% is for external companies in Europe and the US.
CSM carries out a number of different call-center related activities for its clients. There's technical support; lead generation - where call agents set up face-to-face interviews for salespeople; and fund-raising.
Current jobs include order-taking for a British catalog company, subscriptions for a Dutch newspaper and technical support for a European company that sells computers.
What makes CSM different from other call centers is its staff. In Jerusalem, the company can tap into a large pool of new immigrants from North America and Europe. These employees speak their languages fluently, were educated abroad and understand the home culture.
A caller from Britain who has a query about a product, for example, will speak directly to a native British call operator, while a French caller will speak to a French operator. The caller is put straight through and has no idea that he is speaking to someone in Jerusalem. As far as he is aware, the speaker could be just down the road.
Israeli salaries are up to 40% lower than in Europe and America, which means that CSM can offer services at a lower price than western rivals.
The real competition then, comes from countries like India, where labor is dirt cheap. These countries now have many overseas call centers and their prices are unbeatable.
"Our prices are higher, but we offer better quality," insists Kutliroff.
The high level of professionalism amongst employees at CSM prompted Kutliroff and Shmidman to start looking for new ways to leverage their skills. Six months ago, the company set up a new division, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which offers outsourcing services in a number of different sectors. In America, outsourcing of high-end services is becoming increasingly popular. Instead of hiring a technical expert, a company will outsource work such as graphic design and computer programming to a company in India, for example.
Already CSM is offering outsourced services in law, graphic design, IT security, billing and Employment Assistance Programs (EAP). Though the division is still in its infancy, Kutliroff is pleased with progress.
It enables her to offer staff more opportunities and more flexibility with hours. At present, CSM's busiest shift is between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., when America is awake and at work. These are unsociable hours for employees and are particularly hard for parents with young children.
Professional outsourcing work, however, can be done during regular Israeli work hours, making life more accommodating.
Another key advantage for CSM is its relationship with parent company, IDT. As a telecom provider, IDT gives CSM access to high quality lines and equipment otherwise not available to an independent call center. It can also help the company broker good pricing deals on international phone lines.
Despite all this growth, however, CSM is not yet financially where it hopes to be but is committed to continuing growth, according to Kutliroff. "It's expensive to have a call center in Har Hotzvim, rather than Ashdod, but this is where the Anglos are."
CSM's key mission now is to build business and to reduce its reliance on IDT. The company has to prove it offers quality and performance. It must also manage its extraordinary growth - a formidable task.
Israel is littered with the remains of companies that grew too fast, lost focus and direction and finally collapsed under the strain. CSM must be particularly careful because it is diversifying into so many new markets.
Kutliroff admits that new business opportunities are constantly thrown the company's way.
Despite the company's expansion plans, Kutliroff plans to ensure the company maintains the call-center as its bread and butter operation and leverages that infrastructure to create new opportunities.
With the interview finished, Kutliroff takes a tour around the company's hodge podge of offices scattered throughout the Luz Building. The offices are on different levels and the place resembles a complicated hi-tech rabbit warren with work stations slotted into every available corner. In a year, CSM plans to move to a new building in Har Hotzvim built especially for its needs.
Down one corridor, a former employee stops Kutliroff to show off her new baby, who is grizzling gently in her pram. A few moments later, Kutliroff sighs. "One of the problems with all this growth is that I don't know everyone any more." |
