Billed as a partnership, the agreement is essentially an outsourcing deal, whereby Liberata will use Xchanging’s procurement expertise to lower the cost of sourcing for itself and its BPO clients. Both parties are hopeful that their relationship will develop so that Liberata will sell Xchanging’s procurement services to its client base, which includes many public sector organizations.
Liberata’s CEO Robert Gogel told Computer Business Review that the company expects Xchanging to deliver cost savings of between 5% and 15% depending on what is being sourced. The deal includes procurement of IT, temporary labor, facilities management, telecoms, utilities, travel and marketing.
Both companies have General Atlantic as their major investor, but Gogel said the private equity company had no hand in making the deal, instead citing the fact that he was previously an executive at Xchanging and knew the quality of service they offered.
David Rich-Jones, who heads up Xchanging’s procurement division, said that the market for procurement BPO currently was the strongest it had been for three years. Xchanging’s procurement clients include BAE Systems, Boots, National Australia Bank UK, and United Biscuits.
