Sykes Enterprises recently won a five-year contract to answer customer questions for Procter & Gamble, the consumer products giant responsible for brands from Old Spice deodorant to Pepto-Bismol antacid.
It turns out that customer support isn't the only internal function P&G decided to outsource. According to a recent cover story in BusinessWeek, the Cincinnati company turned over the manufacturing of Ivory Soap to a Canadian contractor in April, and handed its information technology operation to Hewlett-Packard in May.
Why outsource? So P&G can focus on what it does best, chief executive Alan "A.G." Lafley told the magazine. It's an attitude Sykes, a Tampa company with 41 call centers around the globe, hopes will continue to spread throughout corporate America and beyond.
Already, the outsourcing trend has helped Sykes grow like wildfire in overseas markets, even as the company slowly pulls out of rural America.
Enterprise magazine recently ranked Sykes the second fastest-growing tech company - in the Philippines. Sykes' Filipino subsidiary has four call centers and more than 2,000 employees.
