PC World Brings Jobs Back to the UK

[The_root_of_all_evil]

PC World Brings Jobs Back to the UK

PC World [http://www.pcworld.co.uk/] (one of the UK's biggest computer stores) has decided that insourcing is a far better idea than outsourcing.

Back in 2004, PC World decided that outsourcing all of its technical support to Capita [http://www.capita.co.uk/Pages/Default.aspx] was a brave new money-saving idea. This didn't sit well with a lot of customers though, as the outsourcing usually went to India, where language barriers caused many complaints from both sides.

The outsourcing agreement with Capita runs out in April, and rather than renewing it, PC World's owners have decided that "by bringing the operation in-house we are taking back control of the customer experience, taking responsibility for and owning our relationship with the customer."

There will be a transitional period of six months to help a "smooth transition" into insourcing, but this means that people ringing PC World's tech support will be connected to an English switchboard.

PC World may be an ulterior motive for the deicsion, though: The combined might of Carphone Warehouse [http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/] and Best Buy [http://www.bestbuy.com/] is threatening to damage PC World's market share, and in the current economic climate, insourcing may be a far better financial model to adopt.

DSG International [http://tinyurl.com/dh64rf], the owners of PC World, will be creating 1,200 jobs in the UK from bringing call centers back into Sheffield and Nottingham. However, a lot of those jobs will be re-employed Capita workers.

Source: The Register [http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/03/09/dsgi_capita/]
(Image) [http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/7062938/]

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[Galletea]

So they make jobs, protect themselves and end up popular in the public eye. Win.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Great, US companies really need to take a hint from this, thats for sure.

 

[Doug]

So they make jobs, protect themselves and end up popular in the public eye. Win.

Indeed...its alittle too perfect. What are they up too? Their dark gods need the hate of a thousand customers daily to keep themselves feed....

 

[NeedAUserName]

*Starts standing ovation*

 

[Brotherofwill]

Sounds pretty good, wouldn't have thought that any large company in this age decides against outsourcing or profit.


*Starts arm motion of clapping*

*Starts standing ovation*

Argghh, again I failed to be the first to clap...

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

I does like DSG international a lot. They're responsible for the laptop I am currently talking to you through; it's an Advent (PC world instore brand), built with quality ASUS parts, paid for by DSGi via insurance when my previous laptop's hinge broke.

They know how to do customer service, provided you're at one of their better stores.

 

[LordBag]

They know how to do customer service, provided you're at one of their better stores.

We must have one of the crap stores then as in my experience they have been shocking. I haven't even walked into a PC World for years now. Certainly not bad news though.

 

[Elurindel]

Now all they need is to sell decent computers, and have staff that know what they're on about. No offence to anybody present who works there, but I've yet to find somebody who knew anything about computers that wasn't on the box.

 

[GloatingSwine]

The call centres have never moved from Sheffield and Nottingham. Only management of them was ever transferred from DSGi to Capita.

 

[Guinny]

The call centres have never moved from Sheffield and Nottingham. Only management of them was ever transferred from DSGi to Capita.

This is also what the article on The Register says, and what I was told when I worked at the Nottingham call centre back in '07. So how did the article end up making generalisations about outsourcing to India and about DSGi bringing call centres back to Sheffield and Nottingham?