Office Depot Selects Convergys to Provide Outsourced Benefits Administration Services
February 12, 2003
(Cincinnati; February 12, 2003) - - Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), the global leader in integrated billing, employee care and customer care services, announced today a five-year contract with Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) to provide outsourced health and welfare benefits and leave of absence administration services. Convergys will support approximately 37,000 U.S. employees of Office Depot with employee care specialists, Web-based self-service capabilities, and other technologies from Convergys' multi-channel service center.
Office Depot sells office supplies, technology products, and furniture, as well as copy, print, and shipping services to small office/home office and medium and large businesses in the United States, Canada, and 20 other countries. As the world's largest seller of office products, the company operates under the Office Depot ®, Viking Office Products® , Viking Direct ®, and 4Sure.com [R] brand names.
"At Office Depot, we value our employees and are committed to a work environment that attracts well-qualified, highly motivated people," said Jay Crosson, Executive Vice President, Human Resources of Office Depot. "Working with Convergys - an industry leader with a reputation for delivering high-quality, cost-effective services supported by leading edge technology - enables us to offer our team convenient and reliable access to benefit services and information."
"Major companies like Office Depot increasingly recognize the value of outsourcing HR administration services as a best practices approach to managing key business processes," said Karen Bowman, President of Convergys Employee Care. "At Convergys, we operate our multi-channel employee care service centers as a virtual extension of the client's HR organization. We invest in the latest technologies such as Web-based self-care and knowledge based management systems, and provide our employee care specialists with ongoing training and professional development."
Convergys Employee Care is uniquely positioned to help its clients design a comprehensive approach to managing their employee relationships, improving satisfaction and loyalty, and reducing costs. Convergys' HR and benefit service centers integrate the latest Web-based employee service technologies with traditional channels such as telephone, fax, mail, and interactive voice response. Convergys employee care services support human resource activities ranging from recruitment to retirement and include benefits administration, general HR administration, payroll administration and processing, learning administration, and recruiting and staffing administration.
About Office Depot
No one sells more office products to more customers in more countries through more channels than Office Depot. As the largest seller of office products around the world, the Company operates under the Office Depot®, Viking Office Products®, Viking Direct ®, and 4Sure.com® brand names. As of September 28, 2002, Office Depot operated 861 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company sells products and services in 20 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 32 office supply stores in France and 12 in Japan that are owned and operated by the Company; and 115 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depot name in six foreign countries.
The Company operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at www.officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as well as a new Web site that targets the school supply market at www.school.com and a new Spanish language Web site at http://espanol.officedepot.com. The Company also operates twenty-four additional Web sites, under the Office Depot and Viking Office Products names, in the U.S., Canada and twelve international countries including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Office Depot's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.
About Convergys
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG) is a global leader in relationship management. We provide solutions that drive more value from the relationships our clients have with their customers. Convergys turns these everyday interactions into a source of profit and strategic advantage for our clients.
For more than 30 years, our unique combination of domain expertise, operational excellence, and innovative technologies has delivered process improvement and actionable business insight to marquee clients all over the world.
Convergys has approximately 65,000 employees in 68 customer contact centers and other facilities in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and our global headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, visit www.convergys.com
(Convergys and the Convergys logo are trademarks of Convergys Corporation.)
Business and Financial Media
John Pratt, Convergys Corporate PR
+1 513 723 3333 or +1 888 284 9900 or john.pratt@convergys.com
International FreeFone, access AT&T, then 1 888 284 9900
Trade Media
Jeff Hazel, Convergys Media Relations
+1 513 723 7153 or jeff.hazel@convergys.com
