Besedo doubles Malta centre to tap English-speaking online market

When Swedish online customer support company Besedo opened its Msida centre a year ago, the plan was to create 200 posts in three years. But such has been the growth of the Malta operation's business that staff numbers will double to 280 over the next year to meet the demands of its rapidly expanding client-base.

It now also plans to tap English-speaking markets in earnest from its Malta centre.

Besedo was founded in Stockholm seven years ago by Jesper Lilliesköld, now president and chief executive officer of the group of companies which has centres in Sweden, Malta and Malaysia.

It provides customer service, online content moderation, and fraud and abuse management to a cross-section of online businesses, particularly i-gaming, classifieds and user-generated content sites, e-commerce, and web-based financial services.

The company serves 14 languages from the different locations - in Malta, Besedo's agents work in Maltese, Italian, French, Spanish and Scandinavian languages. The 25 Maltese agents operate mainly in Italian. Most management posts - country manager, HR manager, implementation manager, shift manager, and floor manager, are occupied by Maltese.

"As a Swedish company, the English-speaking market has not been our focus from the start," Mr Lilliesköld told The Sunday Times. "Now that we are in Malta where people are fluent in English, we intend to approach the UK market and others.

"We have a constant flow of requests and proposals from potential clients, so times are pretty good for companies like us. The global recession actually makes companies think about opportunities of outsourcing. It is mainly the risk factor they are looking at, rather than cost. It is also a way of streamlining their own business."

Besedo has clients in 11 countries - and even has a handful of requests from Maltese organisations which the company is studying.

Mr Lilliesköld explained that services for i-gaming, classifieds and user-generated content sites involve checking the quality of online material. Advertising and discussion forums are monitored and agents see that the type of product that the user has placed online is legal and according to the policy set by the website.

Both internal and external groups are checked and the process involves a combination of technology and manual work.

E-commerce clients often demand customer service and customer retention facilities; financial services portals which are served include loan and price comparison websites.

Mr Lilliesköld pointed out that Besedo is now eager to penetrate the "interesting" virtual gaming world (as opposed to gambling sites) as the Malta centre could manage hosts efficiently and effectively.

Besedo began its expansion out of Stockholm, originally considered to be the continent's internet capital, two years ago. Mr Lilliesköld and Besedo's three vice-presidents for sales and marketing, finance, and operations realised the company had to internationalise. Besedo moved to Msida and Kuala Lumpur at around the same time.

Mr Lilliesköld explained that clients were expanding rapidly - as soon as their products were successful in a particular market they would be exported to others quickly and Besedo had to be able to offer support in many tongues.

"We decided to find a location where staff could speak many different languages. We also selected Malta because the country has put a lot of effort into growing online business and the entire sector in general, particularly with the Smart City project.

"The cost level is attractive, which is also important for many clients as the volumes are growing. It is also a nice place to work. We hire many young agents from abroad - most are aged between 20 and 25 - and they care about things like the climate and good food."

Besedo's story is similar to most online success stories - it all started in Mr Lilliesköld's kitchen. Raised in a family working in the service industry, he joined the sector and worked for travel and car rental organisations. He later worked for a strategy consulting company mainly involved in internet media and telecom businesses.

He admitted he toyed with the idea of combining his two passions - the internet and services, and set up shop independently. At the time, the internet bubble had just burst and online companies seriously needed to start making money.

"Some of them actually started to succeed in charging their clients for the content or the service," he recalled. "When they did, the need for service increased. Before that, everything was free. When you start charging, the clients expect better service. So I realised there was a window of opportunity to focus on customer service functions for the online businesses."

Besedo grew slowly. It took on a few clients, and for the first two or three years concentrated on building its product, set up all the standard operating procedures, and training and hiring strategies, until the product was strong enough to sell.

There was no external capital - a clear choice from the start, Mr Lilliesköld emphasised. There was no marketing either, and business grew primarily through recommendation. After five years of consolidation in Sweden, it was time to expand overseas to meet customer requirements. As challenging and painful as it seemed at the time, Mr Lilliesköld said going overseas was a must if the company was to seek growth.

Although some assignments are run across all centres, each has a specific client focus. In Malta and Malaysia, Besedo is involved in both outsourcing and offshoring - mainly setting up operations for clients in other countries. The Kuala Lumpur office also takes care of internal functionalities to support other centres in forecasting, and scheduling. The business assigned to the Stockholm centre mainly consists of shorter, campaign-based assignments. It is also geared towards online financial ser- vices, an important sector in Scandinavia.

Now that the growth in Malta is clearly planned, Besedo will now turn its focus on expanding the operation in Malaysia, which is currently manned by 25 people. The Kuala Lumpur centre usually takes over from Malta at around midnight, when the Msida centre closes down. Besedo is firmly against having people working in the middle of the night.

Mr Lilliesköld believes agents can offer a higher quality service to clients when they are fully alert. The expansion in Malaysia will also support requests from Besedo's clients for 24-hour services.

It is now also time to build the Besedo brand, Mr Lilliesköld pointed out. A marketing drive is currently in the pipeline.