Teleperformance doubles investment

Teleperformance Italia, the contact centre company with 2,000 employees in Taranto, doubles the programme contracts signed with the Apulia Region to encourage new investments and accelerate artificial intelligence. Seen not as a tool to replace people but to add value to the performance of TP IT whose customers are at the top end of the market. The new contract amounts to 6.5 million, is co-financed equally by the company and the region, and provides for the recruitment of six new high-professional units: engineers, creatives and developers. "The projects use existing resources plus new ones,' explains Diego Pisa, managing director of Teleperformance Italia. 'The aim is to improve the way our operators manage interactions. A series of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are therefore grafted onto human management. In addition, virtual reality components are also introduced for the training part'.

'Already today,' Pisa continues, 'the TP IT operator is supported by artificial intelligence. In fact, the first programme contract with the region developed such a platform, which we are now putting on the market with a number of customers, both here and abroad. The first contract was in 2019 with three years of development. It amounted to 8 million and 12 hires. It was the first step that developed a software product that is operational. Now, with the second part, the content is expanded. We waited two years to get the OK and two years is also the development time of the project. In two years we will therefore have another new product. The two contracts will also be able to integrate. We aim at modulated platforms to finalise them to the needs of the customers. Not everyone may be interested in all modules, so we can only configure part of it. But we are also reasoning about a third programme contract along the same lines,' announces CEO Pisa. 'I have asked my people to start testing, from this point of view, several programmes in parallel. It is a way of transforming the company. But it is also an interesting channel for the territory. The collaboration between institutions, universities and companies, which is the hallmark of these contracts, can create value for the area, encourage recruitment and create development hubs that then keep young people here'.

TP IT has 2,200 employees, of which 2,000 in Taranto employed on a permanent basis, and 520,000 worldwide. The balance sheets have been in the black for four years. There are no redundancies. This is a chapter that has been closed for years as the company, by giving up some orders and changing management, including personnel management, has chosen the top end of the market: multinational companies and companies that recognise customer care as a value and not a cost. A segment where small contact centres, those with low prices, do not reach. The workforce is 70 per cent women.