Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated, Chief Executive Officer Chuck Sykes is pleased to announce the appointment of Ian Barkin — co-founder of global intelligent automation (IA) and robotic process automation (RPA) leader Symphony Ventures, Inc. — as chief strategy and marketing officer.
In November, SYKES acquired Symphony Ventures, making it the first front-office business process outsourcer (BPO) with significant automation capability. The Symphony transaction is the latest in a series of recent strategic acquisitions and partnerships that redefine SYKES as a digital customer experience company. While its suite of solutions traditionally focused on post-sales support, the portfolio now extends across the entire customer lifecycle, from marketing to sales to care. By investing in Symphony, SYKES further expands its services to support clients’ RPA and IA initiatives with a trusted global leader in designing, implementing and managing digital operations.
“Bringing Ian aboard is paramount to quickly and efficiently combining Symphony’s capabilities with those of SYKES and our other recent investments,” Sykes states. “Ian will help drive the organization to the next level, working with the team to advance the SYKES brand and service suite.”
In his role, Barkin will help spearhead SYKES’ ongoing commitment to be the digital partner of choice for world-class enterprise brands.
“The visionary leadership at SYKES is shaping the evolution of outsourcing,” Barkin notes. “They recognize an imperative to transform and have created an unrivaled portfolio of the capabilities that enterprises are looking for in a digital transformation partner. I am proud and excited to join this team and, together, define and build the future of work.”
As Symphony co-founder and CSO, Barkin helped the firm become an RPA leader and directed marketing and branding efforts that established it as a top brand in the marketplace. He’s held leadership positions within consulting and BPO industries and has led innovation initiatives across our industry.
“Building strategic partnerships with relevant, leading brands continually positions SYKES at the cutting edge of our industry,” Sykes says. “We are thrilled to welcome Ian to the team and work closely with him as we continue to establish ourselves as the clear partner of choice for forward-thinking enterprises.”
Since 2012, SYKES has made several investments that expanded their digital capabilities, including Clearlink (2016), a leader in digital marketing, sales and data science; Qelp (2015), an innovator of online self-help software; and a partnership with XSELL Technologies (2017), which enhances the sales capabilities of its agents through a cloud-based machine learning platform. The acquisition of Alpine Access in 2012 also differentiated SYKES with an established, reliable and secure home-based service option that allows for rapid scalability and flexibility. Just recently, HFS Research ranked SYKES #1 for vision and go-to-market strategy in their Front Office Customer Engagement Operations Top 10 report.
About Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated
Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated (“SYKES” or “the Company”) is a leading provider of multi‐channel demand generation and global customer engagement services. The Company provides differentiated full lifecycle customer‐engagement solutions and services to Global 2000 companies and their end customers primarily in the technology, financial services, healthcare, communications and transportation & leisure industries. SYKES’ differentiated full lifecycle management services platform effectively engage customers at every touchpoint within the customer journey, including digital marketing and acquisition, sales expertise, customer service, technical support and retention.
The Company serves its clients through two geographic operating regions: the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America, South Asia and Asia Pacific) and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). Its Americas and EMEA regions primarily provide customer‐engagement solutions and services with an emphasis on inbound multichannel demand generation, customer service and technical support to its clients’ customers. These services are delivered through multiple communication channels including phone, email, social media, text messaging, chat and digital self‐service.
The Company also provides various enterprise support services in the United States that include services for our clients’ internal support operations, from technical staffing services to outsourced corporate help desk services. In Europe, the Company provides fulfillment services, which includes order processing, payment processing, inventory control, product delivery and product returns handling. Its complete service offering helps its clients acquire, retain and increase the lifetime value of their customer relationships. The Company has developed an extensive global reach with customer engagement centers across six continents, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. It delivers cost‐effective solutions that generate demand, enhance the customer service experience, promote stronger brand loyalty, and bring about high levels of performance and profitability.
For additional information please visit www.sykes.com.
About Symphony Ventures:
Symphony Ventures is a global consulting, implementation and managed services firm passionate about helping clients harness the “Future of Work.” Symphony Ventures specializes in robotic process automation (RPA), cognitive automation and other inspired delivery models to help organizational leadership reduce costs, increase customer experience, repatriate work and unleash resources to fund growth and shareholder value. Symphony has headquarters in London and offices in San Francisco, Boston and Poland. Founded in 2014, Symphony has been ranked an RPA Service leader by HFS Research, a leading service delivery automation (SDA) focused service provider by Everest Group and a Cool Vendor by Gartner. The firm is rapidly growing and shaping an industry predicated on work, value and customer experience. Symphony works with leading RPA vendors, including Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, NICE and UiPath.
For more information, visit http://www.symphonyhq.com/