Contact Center Vendor OMDR Acquired by Silverline

Officials from Silverline Technologies have announced that the company has acquired OMDR, which you might remember as Omega Direct Response. The Toronto company sells customer interaction and management services, particularly in the inbound and outbound business service management space.

Established in 1997, OMDR sells outsourced call center services. Over the last 10 years, the company has had over 65 million customer interactions with an employee base of over 850 personnel. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Silverline designs and implements call center initiatives ranging from inbound customer care, sales and help desk to outbound services along with in-language services in English Spanish, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi and other languages. OMDR delivers its services out of call centers in Toronto and Sudbury Ontario, and Zacatecas, Mexico and is planning to establish a facility at Gandhinagar and Chennai, India.

OMDR will become part of Silverline's Customer Care and Service Management practice. The new capability acquired "addresses two common needs evident in the marketplace the increasing cost of ownership of customer acquisition, customer service and customer retention and the recruitment and retention of skilled technical resources," according to a report at EquityBulls.

"This acquisition puts Silverline to be a contender in the service management space," said Ravi Subramanian, Silverline Chairman.

Last year Omega Direct Response expanded to Zacatecas, promising to offer 400 jobs over a period of 18 months.

"Our expansion to Zacatecas has proven to be a huge success for Omega Direct … Mexico is one of the most mature offshore markets in the world. Our experience over the past few months has proven to our executive team that this expansion was the right business decision for our company," said Bharat Hansraj, President and CEO of Omega Direct Response at the time.

Negotiations for Omega Direct's expansion to Zacatacas were firmed up in September 2006 by State Governor Amalia Garcia Medina and the Secretary of Economic Development, Rafael Sescosse Soto.

Mexico's call center industry is set for continued growth due to increased demands from international companies. Mexico offers an educated labor force, offering versatility in English and bilingual teleservices and customer care.

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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