Why Cybalink Solutions is the Preferred Outsourcing Partner

Cybalink’s staff are well-organised, articulate and fully understand their jobs. Their experience speaks for themselves, they are engaging and are passionate about their job. I like the fact that the team are empowered well enough and do not look to [management] to validate what they are saying. Their level of confidence won me over there and then. – Finance Manager of a Trusted Regional Commercial Construction Company

 

Satisfying a Company experienced in outsourcing

This regional commercial construction company was not new to outsourcing. Being a part of The Executive Connections (TEC) in Australia, their Senior Management Team members are knowledgeable on outsourcing and what it can do for their business. As part of the Company’s Client Satisfaction Survey, Cybalink reached out recently to understand their thought process on how Cybalink emerged as their top choice from a total of ten Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies and their list of considerations. Because this company had already outsourced estimating tasks previously, they have certain expectations on what to look for when they finally take on the right BPO to work with.

A change in departments and an empty seat in Accounts Payable (AP) and the requirement for more QS/Estimators became the catalyst to start talking to outsourcing providers more seriously. From ten potential BPO partners, they further narrowed it down to two, with Cybalink being a strong contender. Cybalink’s access to a global talent pool that follows through an extensive onboarding support was ultimately one of the deciding factors that edged out other competitors. The list below gives an in-depth insight as to how this multi-awarded regional construction company came about their decision, and how Cybalink Solutions was, inevitably, the RIGHT choice for them.

Specialists

Cybalink Solutions’ Managing Director and Co-Founder, Kim Lombardi’s extensive knowledge and experience of over 17 years in the Engineering and Construction industries became its stronghold for Cybalink’s overall industry specialisation track record. Given this level of experience and familiarity, it was seen as a great asset and a key differentiator.

A company that understands specific standards of your industry will not simply provide you with generic by-the-book outsourcing solutions, but a personalised one. – Kim Lombardi

Cybalink knew the right questions to ask a potential Accounts Payable (AP) specialist on top of what the client has specified for its job description and requirements. Cybalink hires as if they are hiring for themselves, with a complete comprehension of what is to be expected from an AP (or any specialised role) within your industry.

Business Model

As a company who cares a lot about their values, it was imperative that this showed in how they do business with others and through whom they did business with. So a lot of their thought processes in regard to the decision-making is to confirm that the selected company is someone they can build a long-term relationship with.

The outsourcing services provider must match their way of handling business.

While an outsourcing giant may often attract clients easily because having large numbers possibly mean good business, this particular client sees it differently. They choose quality over quantity when it comes to the way business creates revenue—something that aligns with Cybalink’s values and objectives as well. Cybalink remains focused on its industrial specialisation, not simply taking on every project that comes its way. Each opportunity is assessed and considered against its expertise—something sets Cybalink apart from others in the field, and ultimately makes them the right fit for their clients.

Through careful selection of who they work with, Cybalink is able to maintain their excellent standards of outsourcing excellence. This, coupled with their efficient workflow system, access to specialised target selection with ongoing performance management and support have become the evidence for how Cybalink expanded its global footprint from Australia, to the USA, and since 2019, to the United Kingdom as well.

Personalised Interaction


Service and Knowledge

While it was not a requirement for Cybalink to stay in touch with the client over the period of 12 months until the roles that required to be filled came up, Cybalink remained available regardless. This became a key factor in the client’s decision to engage with Cybalink—simply that they were available to respond to any and all questions, even providing advice outside of appointments. It was clear that Cybalink is an outsourcing partner that provides 24/7 global access. According to the client representative, “I’ve never felt like I was asking too many questions”.

Professionalism

The last step before the appointment, the client visited the Philippines and conducted site visits to the remaining BPO companies whom they were considering to work with. Cybalink continued to be of assistance to them in a professional manner by getting everything ready for their visit. From arranging the office tour and meeting the direct team, to giving tips on navigating the traffic and accommodation recommendations; even referring activities they could do to maximise their trip. It was that kind of service and hospitality that may not have been expected but was truly appreciated.

Cybalink takes an interest in your business because they know it is important to you—what’s important to you, is important to them.”

High-Calibre People

As with most companies of their stature, what’s important to this Cybalink client is the people. This is why the site visit was crucial for them to know if what is being sold to them is true. They have an acute sense of responsibility in ensuring that their offshore team will be treated well and that their working condition and environment is conducive for output of high-level productivity. Having met Cybalink’s dedicated Performance Service Manager, it became clear to this Trusted Regional Construction Company that they’ve found their rightful match.

Cybalink’s staff are well-organised, articulate, and fully understand their jobs. Their experience speaks for themselves. They are engaged and are passionate about their jobs. I like the fact that the team are empowered well enough and do not look to [management] to validate what they are saying. Their level of confidence won me over there and then. – Finance Manager of a Construction Company

Cybalink’s team who fronted their site visit meeting consisted of Kim Lombardi and her team of Client Service & Performance Supervisors (CSPS). The CSPS play a key role in ensuring seamless communications between the client and their offshore team. They also provide useful insights into culture introduction and integration between the client and the offshore team and continually manage and refine the KPI’s laid out for each role. In order to have a better feel for the team that they will be working with at Cybalink, the client also met with the Operations team and Human Resources who are directly involved in sourcing for candidates. Not only that, the client also picked up on a workplace personality tool that Cybalink employs, a unique method that looks into the psychology of a candidate versus what they would portray during an interview. This has proven very useful when deciding on which candidate will be most suitable for the role as well as be the right fit for the company required. And because Cybalink has a quality selection of candidates lined up, sourced from a large international global talent pool, it allows the client to be able to look through the best of the best for their perfect match.

Conclusion

You will find that there are many BPO companies in the Philippines that are doing amazing things for a number of industries globally. That is exactly the competitive edge of outsourcing your team—you’ll get to expand your search to a wider pool of global talent. And with Cybalink Solutions, you know you’re dealing with an outsourcing company that has spent years building up their talents and specialising in Engineering and Construction industry experts. The desire to maintain focus on these key industries is essential in being able to provide clients with top-notch professionals. By taking care of their clients and their community, Cybalink’s solutions contribute to a greater cause. Cybalink provides clients with access to better resources and working with personable people. Delivering what they promise, they adhere to having total transparency and being open about expectations. Cybalink’s dynamic team celebrates wins together, and supports and enables your growth with highly productive, offshore teams.

Cybalink Solutions aim is to deliver outsourcing excellence by empowering and enabling innovation. Through collaborative partnerships and fostering our belief in community spirit, and the desire to be something more – for ourselves as individuals and most importantly as a company. – Kim Lombardi, Managing Director

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Engineering and Construction Outsourcing

How Cybalink Has Helped Both Clients and Its Own People During Difficult Times





How has Cybalink continued offering quality services where others struggle? Read what our clients and team have to say.

When the world was forced into change it was a sink or swim situation for most businesses. But here at Cybalink we ensured we swam and provided lifeboats for as many people as we could.

We are committed to working in the best interests of our clients and team and making a positive community impact.

By doing that, we’ve ensured a near-seamless transition into a working structure to meet the challenges of our ever-changing environment.  We wanted to find out what members of our team thought about our response to coronavirus.

So, we sent out a survey asking how our response to the outbreak helped them. And in doing that, we discovered how Cybalink has continued to deliver services for our clients and people. 

Here are five ways how we have kept our teams happy and operational during this trying time.

The Philippines went into a strict lockdown off the back of a short 24-hour notice period, resulting in checkpoints and restriction of all movements. As a result, our personnel had no means to access the Cybalink office unless they were living right next door. 

Cybalink reacted with urgency to the situation. They were successful in deploying all necessary hardware and equipment to locations outside the metro within 5 days of the announcement. And this was made possible in spite of having no access to malls that sold IT equipment and other accessories.

The surveys of both our people and our clients proved to us that we responded well and we’re not afraid of change and implementing new processes or systems that only improve the environment for our team and experience for our clients.

Read from our clients and people on how we are continuing to develop and support in areas of:

Adapting to Change

Cybalink Solutions Client – Trusted Regional Commercial Construction Company

When the pandemic forced the closure of thousands of Australian businesses, a Finance Manager at an award-winning regional commercial construction company started to worry. Being in a large-scale construction company, she had some concerns about her industry. In particular, she highlighted the following:

Not knowing if the government was going to stop construction in Australia, too.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Australia kept its construction industry going, which meant  she and her team could keep working. But she soon needed to face other challenges. As a Cybalink client, she has a team of three quantity surveyors and two accountants working offshore. Would they be able to keep performing their roles for her business? Fortunately, yes, as Cybalink was ready to ensure the support needed was there. Our rapid response to the crisis during its early stages allowed us to get our people ready to work from home. And because of that,  our client was able to return to a business as usual situation far quicker than she anticipated. When we asked her why she thought this happened, she had a simple response:

[Cybalink] communicated. [You] got equipment to the team without question.




Prioritising Our Team

Kenny Sasan

The biggest concern that many of our people had was that they’d be unable to work. This would result in a loss of income that could make their living situations difficult. It’s certainly a worry that Kenny had. A Client Services and Performance Supervisor, he’s worked at Cybalink for a little over a year. He pointed out that his partner isn’t able to work from home due to lockdown. This placed increased pressure on him to be the breadwinner for his family – at least for the time being. Cybalink made sure he could fill that role. As with all of our other team members, we provided Kenny with the equipment he needed to work from home. And in doing that, we prioritised the well-being and working situations of our people.

As Kenny himself put it:

I am grateful to be part of the Cybalink Team. The team is always the main priority and Cybalink ensured that they were able to keep their job, whilst also maintaining their safety in the middle of this pandemic.

We knew that prioritising our people was the key concern when lockdown hit. If you don’t do that, you end up with an unhappy and unmotivated team. And in this situation, you’d end up with a team that isn’t even able to work. By putting our people first, we ensured they could continue offering what our clients need.




A Fast Response

John Virgil B. Arlante

John is a quality surveyor and estimator. Having worked at Cybalink for almost two years, he’s grown accustomed to working in our offices. That’s what made going into lockdown such a huge challenge for him:

In the initial days of lockdown, it was challenging because I was working with my own PC, and some of my files were on my office desktop.

Forced to work from home, John didn’t have everything that he needed to get his job done. It was a challenge for him to work only with his own equipment. And with his province located 2 hours away from Manila, going back to the office was not possible for him. But we reacted rapidly.

And as John pointed out:

But within a week, everything became smooth as soon as my office desktop was delivered.

In less than a week, we delivered all relevant office equipment to him and all our team members. The speed of this response is a key component of how we’ve kept our clients’ teams operational. With the right equipment on hand, John can now focus on what he does best: Providing an amazing service to our clients.


Continued Adaptation

Louishane V. De Leon

Even after ensuring our people had the equipment that they needed, we didn’t rest on our laurels. We knew our teams would need continued support from us to continue working at full effectiveness. This is especially the case for our HR professional, like Louishane. She works as a HR Data Management Specialist in our team. Her role is to help our clients manage their HR data for over 6000 employees to ensure their construction sites operate effectively. Louishane pointed out that our work with our team didn’t just end with getting them set up:

One thing that I appreciate the most about Cybalink is the effort it exerts, and continually exerts, on fixing/arranging the best possible solution during this unprecedented event. Like for instance, the office remained open for those who had the means and could still report in the office.

Adaptability is the key to success in these unprecedented times. By providing our people with as many options as possible, we help them to work in a way that suits them. This has a massive impact on internal motivation levels. And with help from continued feedback, we continue to adapt our response to ensure maximum productivity. Again, this is a very good thing for our clients. They see little or no disruption because we’ve provided our people with what they need to perform.


Supporting Families

Cybalink HR Data Management Specialist

Lockdown hit our teams in the Philippines pretty hard. One day, they were able to go into work. Next, they couldn’t come into the offices at all! John already mentioned the challenges in connection with the lockdown. For that first week, it was a scramble on our part to get our teams operational again. And while we managed it very quickly, some of our people couldn’t work during that first week. Among them was one of our HR Data Management Specialists. He spent the first week of lockdown unable to work, which naturally led to concerns about his pay. He worried that he wouldn’t receive payment if he couldn’t work.

But we ensured that this wasn’t the case. In his survey, the team member pointed out the measures we took to support our people during that trying first week:

Even though we were not totally working from the day that the government announced the lockdown, it helped that the company gave us consideration especially during those times.

In other words, we ensured that our people still had financial support even when they couldn’t work. This ensured stability for them as they adjusted to new working conditions. And we believe this is directly reflected in the quality of work that our people continue to provide to clients.


The Creation of Systems That We May Use Going Forward

Kim Brian O. Baltazar

As part of the surveys for our people, we asked everybody how working from home has affected them. What changes have they seen? And have they enjoyed any benefits from this new style of working? Kim is one of our quantity surveyors and estimators. He has been with us for a year and 4 months and he revealed an unexpected benefit of working from home:

I find it easier and more convenient working from home because of the following reasons: I do not have to travel going to work, I do not need to rent a boarding house to live in during weekdays. Lastly, I have more time to spend with my family.

This is invaluable feedback for us going forward.




We Continue to Adapt

The surveys of both our people and our clients proved to us that we responded beyond expectations to the unprecedented situation.

We learnt WE:

  • Are not afraid of change.
  • Are dynamic and resilient.
  • Are able to implement new systems and processes with flexibility and speed.
  • Never give up.
  • Are committed to working in the best interests of our clients and our people.

And by doing that, we ensured a near-seamless transition into the work from home “new normal”.

Perhaps we could help you to do the same.



Cybalink Solutions E-Book Link

If you are considering outsourcing and find talent like Karl, start your outsourcing journey today with this e-book.

Click here to download!

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Discover how Cybalink Solutions can help you achieve up to a 70% overhead reduction through our Philippine outsourcing solutions. Let's explore how to optimize your operations, lower costs, and increase margins.

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How an Australian Company Used Outsourcing to Make Big Business Improvements

 

Outsourcing can help companies improve their efficiency and save a lot of money. Even the most menial tasks can bring a positive change. And one Australian company played its cards right to make outsourcing work. Outsourcing is the practice of hiring external workers to perform particular tasks. By doing so, the company in question can avoid hiring new permanent employees or burdening its existing workforce. The benefits of outsourcing are numerous. First, a company stands to reduce costs and increase productivity, if properly executed. As a result, its onshore employees would have more time to focus on essential tasks.  Furthermore, it’s possible to outsource both full-time and part-time jobs. Companies that outsource through Cybalink, in particular, enjoy additional benefits. For example, Cybalink specialises in engineering and construction. That’s in contrast to most offshoring providers that offer one-size-fits-all solutions. With this specialisation, you’re sure to find the most qualified employees for your company.

Critically, Cybalink has a proven track record of helping companies become more productive with innovative solutions. These include developing a better workflow, improving business processes, and increasing capacity. As you can imagine, this would enable you to save a lot of money. In focusing on solutions and systems, Cybalink will go to great lengths to find the right workers for you. Steeped in both sets of culture, Cybalink is an expert at bridging cultural gaps. And an Australian company achieved all these because it successfully outsourced with Cybalink. Theirs is a perfect case study of what happens when outsourcing is done right.

The Before Story

The client’s company had always had growth potential. However, staff inefficiency slowed the company’s progress. Back then, it relied strictly on the onshore staff. The company had 50 employees in recruitment, with seven of them having admin roles. And the team also handled training duties for new employees.

All seven admins dealt with data entry. They filled in and submitted training certificates and licenses, and they updated the CVs of the candidates. Data entry is admittedly a low-level task with little contribution to revenue. However, even such small things can result in significant losses if neglected. And that’s what happened to the client’s company.

In the client’s case, this low-level task actually proved to be valuable. The company was being held back by the Admin team’s insufficient speed and precision. To sum it all up, the admin team simply failed to understand the importance of their role. They were too slow and mistakes were common, to the point of submitting certificates with silly mistakes. Of course, this resulted in plenty of applications that needed correction that held things up even further. It’s also common for the new hires to just sit around and wait to get started. And that created additional losses for the company. All told, the admin department was costing the company thousands of dollars. And the hold-up with candidates and new hires further caused staff inefficiency. As the financial and opportunity losses piled up, the client turned their attention outside of Australia.

Why the Client Came to Cybalink

Inefficiency was rife in the admin department, what with the laid-back attitude and disinterest in improving. And things also went from bad to worse. As a result, it caused many problems for the client. All that inefficiency was already taking a toll on the business. Suffice to say, the company lost a lot of money due to incompetence and human error. But besides the recorded losses, there were the opportunity costs as well. They were not making full use of the candidates and new hires. And with that, the productivity got worse over time. Perhaps worst of all is the fact that these losses could have been preventable. If the Admin team had shaped up, the company could have thrived. Instead, it was languishing and things didn’t look like they were about to change. That’s when the client decided to test the data entry team. And they made the following discovery: it took 60 seconds to enter a certificate with an accuracy rate of 75%. These figures were unacceptable and the client knew they needed to do something about it and fast.

So, the client went ahead and revamped the admin team with new hires. But it didn’t work as expected. To make things worse for the client, their industry was growing at a rapid pace. And the company had a hard time finding skilled professionals in Australia as a result. Besides not having the necessary skills, the available candidates also showed little interest in delivering quality work. Predictably, the client couldn’t fill open positions with quality employees. After their spectacular failure, the client knew they had to change the approach. Rather than looking in Australia, the company turned its attention to outsourcing. Honing in on the Philippines, they contacted Cybalink for a solution.

The Cybalink Solution

First and foremost, Cybalink helped the client hire a team of data entry admins based in the Philippines. While Cybalink handled the recruitment, the final say belonged to the client. The new team members showed high motivation and understanding of their responsibilities. They also displayed greater accuracy and speed compared to the local team in Australia. And the attitude of the Filipino team was even more professional and dedicated. The client went on to test the outsourced team like they did the local one before. The results may surprise you… but you really shouldn’t be. That’s because the offshore team outperformed the native team by a wide margin. The 95% accuracy was 20% better. And with an average certificate entry time of 20 seconds, they blew away the Australian team by a neat 40 seconds! The client’s situation changed soon after hiring Cybalink’s services. They went from losing money to saving money, and eventually turning a profit. And unsurprisingly, it didn’t take them long to want to expand the team in the Philippines.

What Did This Mean for the Client

Outsourcing was beneficial to the client in a number of ways. For starters, they were able to offer a better service to their Australian clients. The services even became faster and more accurate, thanks to the new team. Also, the new hires no longer had to wait a long while before starting work. The new team made far fewer mistakes, which was key to increasing the company’s efficiency. And the much lower certificate entry time and the much fewer corrections resulted in a corresponding increase in productivity. The new team also brought a more professional attitude to the table. The outsourced employees proved to be more focused and dedicated to their tasks than the native Australian employees. In comparison, the Filipino team members also showed more gratitude. No secret to anyone, the client benefited from lower wage costs. That enabled the company to expand the data entry team. Thrilled with the performance, the client grew the team to 45 workers over time. And this brought with it $3 million in yearly savings to the client.

Even after the expansion, the outsourced team was able to keep up with the superior performance. The work ethics remained at a high level, and the same is true for accuracy and speed. It’s precisely the bigger team that allowed the client to grow in earnest. In fact, the company doubled its business and became a significant player on the national scale. That allowed the client to do business on their own terms. Through it all, the client realised that they didn’t have to get stuck with unprofessional and expensive employees at home. That’s because the original team grew complacent and their professionalism was the first to go. But with a simple change in perspective, they were able to turn the loss into profit. Thanks to Cybalink, the company is now growing at a fast pace.

Outsource with a Purpose

There are cases where you’re better off going with an outsourced team. They’re cheaper and fully capable of delivering top-level performance, provided you go with a qualified outsourcing provider that has plenty of experience and knowhow. Furthermore, finding enough skilled and professional workers in Australia is a challenge on its own. And it’s a lot worse if you’re talking about the in-demand positions. In fact, it can be near impossible sometimes. And it’s what happened to the Australian company in the case study above. With Cybalink’s help, however, the company turned it around. The situation stabilised and the local team could then switch its attention to company growth.



Get in touch today to book a confidential call with our co-founders Kim Lombardi and John Rodgers.

 

Cybalink Solutions E-Book Link

If you are considering outsourcing and find talent like Sharlene, start your outsourcing journey today with this e-book.

Click here to download!


Ready to Transform Your Business?

Discover how Cybalink Solutions can help you achieve up to a 70% overhead reduction through our Philippine outsourcing solutions. Let's explore how to optimize your operations, lower costs, and increase margins.

Book a free consultation!