Connections, in cooperation with UiPath, has created the first robot for Medicover, capable of automatically managing the contracts and benefits of the subscribers and insurers of the medical group.

The SAM robot (Subscriptions Assistant Manager), created on the basis of RPA technology developed by the UiPath unicorn, can register new subscribers, change existing benefits in a subscription plan, add dependents (children or relatives) to the subscriber’s benefit plan or can conclude contracts.

“We seek to include technological innovations in the operational flow as part of our technology strategy to continuously improve the patient experience. The SAM robot meets an increasing need to register new subscribers and update existing contracts. The automation will significantly reduce the processing time, also ensuring the quality of the records with zero errors. In addition, colleagues who handled the manual implementation of these processes will now be involved in less repetitive actions, which bring direct benefits to clients,” states Delia Iliasa, National Director of Medicover Clinics and Commercial Director, Medicover Romania.

For a Medicover subscriber, the benefits are related to the fact that he/she can access medical services quasi-instantaneously after signing the contract, and for any subscriber who becomes a Medicover patient, which means he/she needs a consult or investigation, the related benefit plan can be quickly consulted and the patient is guided in order to get the best solution.

“SAM was created one month ago, and the trial period lasted another month, because there were several exceptions that the robot had to deal with separately, which significantly increased the complexity of the process. The main challenges were related to the interaction of the UiPath robot with the existing subscriber management application. Based on a unique key, the robot identifies a person, applies changes and updates in the related contracts, just as a human operator”, explains Bogdan Florea, founder of Connections and ANIS Vice President. Connections is a leader on the digital transformation market in Romania, with offices in Bulgaria, Serbia and Asia.

This development Centre will focus on Networks Transformation, using state-of-art frameworks and Technologies for key clients in Europe.

The new Tech Mahindra development centre starts with a team of 100 people who will manage different Core, RAN and Transmission network operations for clients in Europe. These network operations will gradually be automated and transformed over the course of the next year using AI and Machine Learning methodologies and IT and technology solutions developed by the company.
”Timisoara is an important industrial, commercial and technology centre in Romania, with a booming IT sector and a young and large English and German speaking population. With the emergence of new technologies like Automation, Artificial Intelligence and 5G, we consider this sector will register tremendous growth in the next 3-5 years. Thus, we plan to expand Timisoara Development Centre as a hub for Tech Mahindra’s European operations and to exponentially grow the Team year-on-year in the future” – stated Vikram Nair, President, EMEA Tech Mahindra.
The Tech Mahindra’s newest office will operate in Vox Technology Park, where the company leased over 600 square meters with an expansion pre-emption in the future.
India-based Tech Mahindra is a USD 4.9 billion company with 118,390+ professionals across 90 countries, helping over 930 global customers including Fortune 500 companies; and the highest ranked Non-U.S. company in the Forbes Global Digital 100 list (2018).

AmCham Hungary has been instrumental in a ground breaking cooperation that sees rival companies come together to raise the awareness and attractiveness of the Business Services Sector in Hungary.
The Business Services Sector (BSS) Attractiveness Forum, the first ever industry cooperation on sector branding, was launched by AmCham Hungary. As of today, 22 companies and organizations have joined this unique and inspiring initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the sector, make it more visible and to promote BSS as a preferred career choice for students in secondary schools and higher education, as well as career starters.
Since the launch, project member companies have joined forces to create the branding and communication strategy for the sector, including the industry’s employee value proposition framework. A brand-new website (www.bsshungary.com) was launched to provide relevant information about the business services sector and it is also accompanied by social media channels to connect with the young generation.


BSS in the spotlights at the HVG Job Fair
Beyond that, two major events were organized in 2019. Early October, the BSS Project had a dedicated stage at the HVG Job Fair, one of the largest and most important career events in Hungary. Among the all-day workshops and over 200 exhibitions, AmCham held panel discussions delving into the mystery behind the business service centers and the vast career opportunities the sector offers.
AmCham members jointly organized these BSS panels, and they continue to work together in promoting the sector with the strategic partner support of the Debrecen Business Service Centers Roundtable and Hungarian Servie and Outsourcing Association (HOA)
Open doors
In October-November, an open-doors event series, titled ‘open_doors@business.services’ will be organized, where the participating BSCs invite young talents to their offices. Fifteen companies committed have themselves to show their offices, explain the career opportunities they offer and educate those who are interested in what the BSS community is about.
The number of companies joining the initiative is growing, at the time of writing, participating companies are: Albemarle, Aldi, Blackrock, BP, BT, Celanese, Citi, Corning, CPL Integrated Services, Diageo, Deloitte, Eaton, ExxonMobil, IBM, Karrier Hungária, Lexmark, National Instruments, Randstad, TATA Consultancy Services, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Unisys.
Another initiative coming from Hungary to promote Business Services is Inspiring Hungary conference organized by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency in early October. The day-long conference gave a unique opportunity to connect key investors and economic stakeholders from home and abroad as well as to expand networks, while learning more about the country’s key assets, economic successes and innovation abilities through clusters, keynotes and round tables with leading experts and government officials.
AmCham’s Innovation and Business Services cluster was opened with an inspirational welcome speech by Péter Szalay, chief operating officer at IBM Hungary, who highlighted dedicated entrepreneurs and talents who dared to dream big and achieved the unachievable, setting an example for all of us.
“Innovation is triggered by curious and courageous individuals who look beyond the conventional and come up with unprecedented answers and ideas,” said AmCham President Dr. Farkas Bársony, opening the round table discussion.

The panel, consisting of Dr. György Drótos (Corvinus University of Budapest), Kata Krecsmári-Kővári (LogMeIn), Kevin Murray (Citi), Prabal Datta (Tata Consultancy Services) and Zoltán Szabó (BT) came together to discuss why regional and global decisions are made in favor of Hungary.
This article appeared in the November issue of JOURNAL, the official magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary.

Paragon Group’s Patrick Crean has reached – and breached – his €1bn turnover goal with the purchase of RR Donnelley’s European Global Document Solutions business, which includes major operations in Krakow. The deal was announced on 28 October. The sale price was not disclosed. GDS is headquartered in the UK and has operations in France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy and employs around 1,500 people. Net sales were approximately $270m in 2018.

Back in 2005 RR Donnelley paid almost $1 billion to acquire the Astron Group of business process outsourcing companies that were the foundation of the GDS business.
In a statement Crean, Paragon’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to acquire RRD’s GDS European businesses and are pleased to announce that we have also entered into a strategic alliance with RRD, which will expand the offerings both companies provide to clients.
The business will become part of Paragon’s Customer Communications business unit.
RR Donnelley GDS works with blue-chip clients in financial services, insurance, investment banking, retail, legal and property. RR Donnelley’s entire European business had sales of $485.9 million last year, up from $455 million in 2017.
Last year $6.8bn turnover RR Donnelley reorganised its business into two segments: Business Services (83% of sales) and Marketing Solutions (17%). It also sold its Print Logistics business last year. CEO Dan Knotts described the GDS sale as “another key step” in the group’s strategic transformation and optimisation of its business portfolio. “The strategic alliance we have established with Paragon, the European leader in communications solutions, enables us to offer an enhanced set of capabilities in the region,” Knotts said.
Privately-owned Paragon Group posted record results with sales of €673m in 2018, with pro forma sales reaching €857m on the back of a string of acquisitions, most recently parts of the Howard Hunt group.
Former printing industry giant RR Donnelley split into three separate businesses in October 2016: RR Donnelley, LSC Communications and Donnelley Financial Solutions. Two months ago RR Donnelley instigated a so-called “poison pill” rights plan to thwart any plans by activist investors to wrest control of the company.

Operating in Kaunas for only a year, the OAG office will soon develop about 60 percent of all OAG technology products both for the airlines and the passengers. The organization started the OAG (Official Aviation Guide), and it has been operating for over 90 years now. Since the start, the company has been a leading player for data and, today, for digital information in the aviation market.

“Our business area is extremely dynamic and engaging. We control huge arrays of data. Every day, we process 4 million flight change information, affecting almost 12 million air passengers. The solutions we offer include the world’s largest flight scheduling database (OAG Schedules), a real-time route and flight status system (OAG Flightview), and a passenger traffic flow monitoring and analysis toolkit (OAG Analytics). In addition, we award the most efficient airlines and airports in OAG on-time performance star ratings: a highly respected rating in the aviation market,”says Simona Vabalė, Head of the OAG office in Kaunas.

Although OAG is not a large organization – with 170 employees spread across the offices in the United Kingdom, the United States, Lithuania, Singapore, Japan, and China – it works with top brands such as Google, Bing, Expedia, Skyscanner, British Airways or United.

OAG’s main clients are airlines, airports and technology solutions providers. OAG officially opened its office in Kaunas in September 2018. Since the start, it has grown to 27 employees and plans to expand even more in the coming years.

Most employees are software development and testing engineers, data scientists, and a few specialists working on data operations. The company is currently hiring IT infrastructure engineers to work in product teams.

Krzysztof Wierzchowski has recently assumed the new position as Site Leader & Global Trade Services Director at Franklin Templeton Investments in Poznan. He has assumed the position recently held by Krzysztof Bronisz.

In September, Croatian company management firm Meritus Ulaganja said it has acquired 51% in Serbian business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider Trizma for 2.16 million euro.

Meritus Ulaganja carried out the acquisition via its Zagreb-based subsidiary Meritus Upravljanje.

"The entire management and all employees were retained in the merger and the existing Trizma shareholders will retain an active role in the company," Meritus Ulaganja board chairman Ivan Posavec said. "As the first and largest independent BPO company in Serbia, we have had long discussions with potential investors and partners, and have chosen Meritus Ulaganja as our strategic partner for further growth," said the head of Trizma, Eldar Banjica.

Meritus Ulaganja is the parent company of one of the largest BPO companies in the region, Zagreb-based M+ Group, with key clients in the areas of telecommunications, energy, and transportation, among others.

Following the acquisition of Trizma, M+ Group will do business at six locations (up from the current five) in four countries - Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, employing more than 2,700 people and providing services to over 150 clients in more than 50 countries. M+ Group's international clients include Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft, RWE, Bosch, DHL, Siemens, Carlsberg, among others.

Trizma was established in 2002 and provides services to clients from the banking, parcel delivery and other industries from its contact centres in Belgrade and Bosnia's Banja Luka.

Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission said that it has received a request for admission to trading on a regulated stock exchange market from local Telelink Business Services Group.

Telelink Business Services Group was spun off from local Telelink Bulgaria in July, becoming the sole owner of software developer Telelink Business Services. At the time, both Telelink Business Services Group and Telelink Bulgaria were 100% owned by Dutch-registered Telelink Holdings.

In September, Telelink Holdings transferred a 78.65% stake in Telelink Business Services Group to the Telelink group's end owner - private individual Lubomir Minchev.

Meanwhile, in August Telelink Holdings increased the capital of Telelink Business Services Group by $7 million, suggesting that big expansion plans on the horizon.

Earlier this year, Lubomir Minchev said that he is considering the option to list Telelink Business Services both in Bulgaria and on a foreign stock exchange. Telelink Business Services is expected to generate a turnover of some 70 million euro this year, Minchev said at the time. In 2017, Telelink reorganised its business into four new companies - Telelink Business Services, Telelink Infra Services, Telelink City Services and Telelink Labs. The four companies became part of newly established holding group Telelink Bulgaria.

Nominations are now Open for the 8th annual CEE Business Services Awards.  Slight but significant changes have been made in the 25 Awards categories: Detailed Listing here.

In addition to our 2-day Summit with 40+ speakers, the Summit&Awards will host top European SSC execs and more than 50 Site Managers from across CEE.

The Hackett Group's Tom Bangemann is featured KeyNote Speaker. 

Newest Jury Members include: FORD, RB, KONE, and DSM.

Early-bird Reservations for Tickets only until 30 October. Full details at CEE Business Services Summit & Awards.