We attended a breakfast briefing yesterday held by Serco Global Services, the 62,000 person-strong BPS division of Serco, where we learned a lot more about its growth plans having recently completed the integration of its recent acquisitions (see here and work back). Most surprising to learn (and for some in Serco too) was that former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio is one of its sales directors, having joined Serco in March 2011 following the acquisition of Richmond-based customer management business The Listening Company (see here). Dallaglio MC'd the event with plenty of build up to England's Six Nations fixture against Wales this weekend. He holds this position alongside his other 'day jobs' on the pitch and commentating for the BBC.
On Serco’s other side we were introduced to Jonathan Prew and Jerry Benson, GS MDs for public and private sector respectively in UK and Europe, who both gave details of the opportunities, pipeline and scale of Serco GS. There are some impressive client names on both sides - Nintendo, O2, Selfridges, Sky, easyjet, Aegon (see Serco ups value of Aegon deal) and Shop Direct (see Serco wins retail BPS megadeal) in private sector; and public sector customers like DWP, UK Borders Agency, Department of Health, the NHS (see Serco in healthy shared services win), and local government customers like Thurrock, Westminster, Glasgow, and Peterborough.
As we pointed out earlier this month, Serco’s BPS business is growing 12% organically (see here). We were told that private sector won £800m of business in 2012 and is bidding on some £2bn of deals currently, which Benson said makes it a very exciting time. Public sector looks less exciting, but there appears to be lots of potential, particularly around growing existing accounts, and seeking payment by results (PBR) deals, an area of public sector we see being on the rise (see MoJ looks for compliance and enforcement BPS).
We will provide a detailed analysis of Serco GS’ business and positioning in due course for subscribers to TechMarketView’s BusinessProcessViews research service.