As globalization of the world's economy continues to accelerate, businesses are increasingly competing on a large-scale basis due to rapid advances in technology and telecommunications that permit cost-effective real-time global communications and ready access to a highly skilled worldwide labor force. As a result of these developments, companies have increasingly outsourced business processes to third-party providers in an effort to enhance or maintain their competitive position while increasing shareholder value through improved productivity and profitability.
Revenue in 2009 decreased over the prior year due to the global economic slowdown resulting in a decline in our current call volumes, delayed client purchasing decisions along with the continued migration of several of our clients to our offshore delivery centers. Nevertheless, we believe that our revenue will continue to grow over the long-term as global demand for our services is fueled by the following trends:
• Integration of front- and back-office business processes to provide increased operating efficiencies and an enhanced customer experience especially in light of the weakening global economic environment. Companies have realized that integrated business processes reduce operating costs and allow customer needs to be met more quickly and efficiently resulting in higher customer satisfaction and brand loyalty thereby improving their competitive position. A majority of our historic revenue has been derived from providing customer-facing front-office solutions to our clients. Given that our global delivery centers are also fully capable of providing back-office solutions, we are uniquely positioned to grow our revenue by winning more back-office opportunities and providing the services during non-peak hours with minimal incremental investment. Furthermore, by spreading our fixed costs across a larger revenue base and increasing our asset utilization, we expect our profitability to improve over time.

• Increasing percentage of company operations being outsourced to most capable third-party providers. Having experienced success with outsourcing a portion of their business processes, companies are increasingly inclined to outsource a larger percentage of this work. We believe companies will continue to consolidate their business processes with third-party providers, such as TeleTech, who are financially stable and able to invest in their business while also demonstrating an extensive global operating history and an ability to cost effectively scale to meet their evolving needs.

• Increasing adoption of outsourcing across broader groups of industries. Early adopters of the business process outsourcing trend, such as the media and communications industries, are being joined by companies in other industries, including healthcare, retail and financial services. These companies are beginning to adopt outsourcing to improve their business processes and competitiveness. For example, we have seen an increase in interest of our services for companies in the healthcare, retail and financial services industries. We believe the number of other industries that will adopt or increase their level of outsourcing will continue to grow, further enabling us to increase and diversify our revenue and client base.

• Focus on speed-to-market by companies launching new products or entering new geographic locations. As companies broaden their product offerings and seek to enter new emerging markets, they are looking for outsourcing providers that can provide speed-to-market while reducing their capital and operating risk. To achieve these benefits, companies are seeking BPO providers with an extensive operating history, an established global footprint, the financial strength to invest in innovation to deliver more strategic capabilities and the ability to scale and meet customer demands quickly. Given our financial stability, geographic presence in 17 countries and our significant investment in standardized technology and processes, we believe that clients select TeleTech because we can quickly ramp large, complex business processes around the globe in a short period of time while assuring a high-quality experience for our clients' customers.

Our Strategy
Our objective is to become the world's largest, most technologically advanced and innovative provider of onshore, offshore and work from home BPO solutions. Companies within the Global 1000 are our primary client targets due to their size, global nature, focus on outsourcing and desire for the global, scalable integrated process solutions that we offer. We have developed, and continue to invest in, a broad set of capabilities designed to serve this growing client need. These investments include our TeleTech@Home offering which allows our employees to serve clients from their homes. This capability has enhanced the flexibility of our offering allowing clients to choose our onshore, offshore or work from home employees to meet their outsourced business process needs. In addition, we have begun to offer 'hosted services' where clients can license any aspect of our global network and proprietary applications. While the revenue from these offerings is small relative to our consolidated revenue, we believe it will continue to grow as these services become more widely adopted by our clients. We aim to further improve our competitive position by investing in a growing suite of new and innovative business process services across our targeted industries.
Our business strategy to increase revenue, profitability and our industry position includes the following elements:
• Capitalize on the favorable trends in the global outsourcing environment, which we believe will include more companies that want to:

• Adopt or increase BPO services;

• Consolidate outsourcing providers with those that have a solid financial position, capital resources to sustain a long-term relationship and globally diverse delivery capabilities across a broad range of solutions;

• Modify their approach to outsourcing based on total value delivered versus the lowest priced provider; and

• Better integrate front- and back-office processes;

• Deepen and broaden our relationships with existing clients;

• Win business with new clients and focus on targeted industries where we expect accelerating adoption of business process outsourcing;

• Continue to invest in innovative proprietary technology and new business offerings;

• Continue to diversify revenue into higher-margin offerings such as professional services, talent acquisition, learning services and our hosted TeleTech OnDemand™ capabilities;

• Continue to improve our operating margins through selective cost cutting initiatives and increased asset utilization of our globally diverse delivery centers;

• Scale our work-from-home initiative to increase operational flexibility; and

• Selectively pursue acquisitions that extend our capabilities, geographic reach and/or industry expertise.

Our Third Quarter 2009 Financial Results In 2009, our third quarter revenue decreased 19.4% to $281.5 million over the year-ago period, which includes a decrease of 3.4% or $11.7 million due to fluctuations in foreign currency rates. Our third quarter 2009 income from operations increased 2.7% to $28.0 million or 9.9% of revenue from $27.2 million or 7.8% of revenue in the year-ago period. This revenue decrease is due to a decline in existing client volumes in light of the current global recessionary economic environment, the continued migration of several of our clients to our offshore delivery centers and proactively managing underperforming business and geographies out of our portfolio. Income from operations for the third quarter of 2009 and 2008 included $0.7 million and $3.0 million of restructuring charges and asset impairment, respectively.
We have experienced growth in our offshore delivery centers, which serve clients based both in North America and in other countries. Revenue in these offshore locations was $140.7 million and represents 50% of our total revenue in the third quarter of 2009. Our offshore delivery capacity now spans seven countries with approximately 25,000 workstations and currently represents 70% of our global delivery capabilities.
Our strong financial position due to our cash flow from operations and low debt levels allowed us to finance a significant portion of our capital needs and stock repurchases through internally generated cash flows. At September 30, 2009, we had $114.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and a total debt to total capitalization ratio of 2.0%.
Business Overview
Our BPO business provides outsourced business process and customer management services for a variety of industries through global delivery centers. Effective January 1, 2009, we completed certain organizational changes focused on streamlining the structure of our organization to more closely align our reporting structure with our client base and increase management accountability. Beginning in the first quarter of 2009, our North American BPO segment is comprised of sales to all clients based in North America (encompassing the U.S. and Canada), while our International BPO is comprised of sales to all clients based in all countries outside of North America. TeleTech revised previously reported operating segment information to conform to its new operating segments in effect as of January 1, 2009.
BPO Services
The BPO business generates revenue based primarily on the amount of time our associates devote to a client's program. We primarily focus on large global corporations in the following industries: automotive, cable, financial services, government, healthcare, logistics, media and entertainment, retail, technology, travel and leisure and wireline and wireless telecommunications. Revenue is recognized as services are provided. The majority of our revenue is from multi-year contracts, and we expect this trend to continue. However, we do provide certain client programs on a short-term basis.
We have historically experienced annual attrition of existing client programs of approximately 7% to 15% of our revenue. Attrition of existing client programs during the first nine months of 2009 was 11%.
The BPO industry is highly competitive. We compete primarily with the in-house business processing operations of our current and potential clients. We also compete with certain third-party BPO providers. Our ability to sell our existing services or gain acceptance for new products or services is challenged by the competitive nature of the industry. There can be no assurance that we will be able to sell services to new clients, renew relationships with existing clients, or gain client acceptance of our new products.
Our ability to renew or enter into new multi-year contracts, particularly large complex opportunities, is dependent upon the macroeconomic environment in general and the specific industry environments in which our clients operate. A continued weakening of the U.S. or the global economy could lengthen sales cycles or cause delays in closing new business opportunities.

Our potential clients typically obtain bids from multiple vendors and evaluate many factors in selecting a service provider, including, among other factors, the scope of services offered, the service record of the vendor and price. We generally price our bids with a long-term view of profitability and, accordingly, we consider all of our fixed and variable costs in developing our bids. We believe that our competitors, at times, may bid business based upon a short-term view, as opposed to our longer-term view, resulting in a lower price bid. While we believe that our clients' perceptions of the value we provide results in our being successful in certain competitive bid situations, there are often situations where a potential client may prefer a lower cost. Our industry is labor intensive and the majority of our operating costs relate to wages, employee benefits and employment taxes. An improvement in the local or global economies where our delivery centers are located could lead to increased labor related costs. In addition, our industry experiences high personnel turnover and the length of training time required to implement new programs continues to increase due to increased complexities of our clients' businesses. This may create challenges if we obtain several significant new clients or implement several new, large scale programs and need to recruit, hire and train qualified personnel at an accelerated rate.
To some extent our profitability is influenced by the number of new client programs entered into within the period. For new programs we defer revenue related to initial training ("Training Revenue") when training is billed as a separate component from production rates. Consequently, the corresponding training costs associated with this revenue, consisting primarily of labor and related expenses ("Training Costs"), are also deferred. In these circumstances, both the Training Revenue and Training Costs are amortized straight-line over the life of the contract. In situations where Training Revenue is not billed separately, but rather included in the production rates, there is no deferral as all revenue is recognized over the life of the contract and the associated training expenses are expensed as incurred. As of September 30, 2009, we had deferred start-up Training Revenue, net of costs, of $6.7 million that will be recognized into our income from operations over the remaining life of the corresponding contracts ($4.9 million will be recognized within the next 12 months).
We may have difficulties managing the timeliness of launching new or expanded client programs and the associated internal allocation of personnel and resources. This could cause slower than anticipated revenue growth and/or higher than expected costs primarily related to hiring, training and retaining the required workforce, either of which could adversely affect our operating results.
Quarterly, we review our capacity utilization and projected demand for future capacity. In conjunction with these reviews, we may decide to consolidate or close under-performing delivery centers, including those impacted by the loss of a client program, in order to maintain or improve targeted utilization and margins. In addition, because clients may request that we serve their customers from international delivery centers with lower prevailing labor rates, in the future, we may decide to close one or more of our delivery centers, even though it is generating positive cash flow, because we believe that the future profits from conducting such work outside the current delivery center may more than compensate for the one-time charges related to closing the facility. Our profitability is influenced by our ability to increase capacity utilization in our delivery centers. We attempt to minimize the financial impact resulting from idle capacity when planning the development and opening of new delivery centers or the expansion of existing delivery centers. As such, management considers numerous factors that affect capacity utilization, including anticipated expirations, reductions, terminations, or expansions of existing programs and the potential size and timing of new client contracts that we expect to obtain.
We continue to win new business with both new and existing clients. To respond more rapidly to changing market demands, to implement new programs and to expand existing programs, we may be required to commit to additional capacity prior to the contracting of additional business, which may result in idle capacity. This is largely due to the significant time required to negotiate and execute large, complex BPO client contracts and the difficulty of predicting specifically when new programs will launch.

We internally target capacity utilization in our delivery centers at 80% to 90% of our available workstations. As of September 30, 2009, the overall capacity utilization in our multi-client delivery centers was 68% and is lower than the prior year due to a decline in existing client volumes in light of the current global recessionary economic environment. The table below presents workstation data for our multi-client delivery centers as of September 30, 2009 and 2008. Dedicated and managed delivery centers (6,545 and 9,257 workstations as of September 30, 2009 and 2008, respectively) are excluded from the workstation data as unused workstations in these facilities are not available for sale to other clients. Our utilization percentage is defined as the total number of utilized production workstations compared to the total number of available production workstations. We may change the designation of shared or dedicated delivery centers based on contractual obligations, normal changes in our business environment and/or client needs.

                                                 September 30, 2009                                        September 30, 2008
                                 Total Production                                          Total Production
                                   Workstations            In Use          % In Use          Workstations            In Use          % In Use

Multi-client centers
Sites open <1 year                        1,158               891              77 %                 6,095             2,732              45 %
Sites open >1 year                       28,272            19,153              68 %                24,289            18,413              76 %

Total multi-client centers               29,430            20,044              68 %                30,384            21,145              70 %

While historically US-based clients utilized most of our offshore delivery capabilities, we have increasingly seen clients in Europe and Asia Pacific utilize our offshore delivery capabilities and expect this trend to continue with clients in other countries. In light of this trend, we plan to continue to selectively expand into new offshore markets. For example, we believe we were one of the first multi-national BPO providers to enter the African continent. As we grow our offshore delivery capabilities and our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations increase, we continue to actively manage this risk via a multi-currency hedging program designed to minimize operating margin volatility. Recent Issued Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for a discussion of recently issued accounting pronouncements. Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates Management's Discussion and Analysis of its financial condition and results of operations are based upon our Consolidated Financial Statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses as well as the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We regularly review our estimates and assumptions. These estimates and assumptions, which are based upon historical experience and on various other factors believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Reported amounts and disclosures may have been different had management used different estimates and assumptions or if different conditions had occurred in the periods presented. Below is a discussion of the policies that we believe may involve a high degree of judgment and complexity. Revenue Recognition
For each client arrangement, we determine whether evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery of our service has occurred, the fee is fixed or determinable and collection is reasonably assured. If all criteria are met, we recognize revenue at the time services are performed. If any of these criteria are not met, revenue recognition is deferred until such time as all of the criteria are met.

Our BPO segments recognize revenue under three models:
Production Rate - Revenue is recognized based on the billable time or transactions of each associate, as defined in the client contract. The rate per billable time or transaction is based on a pre-determined contractual rate. This contractual rate can fluctuate based on our performance against certain pre-determined criteria related to quality and performance.
Performance-Based - Under performance-based arrangements, we are paid by our clients based on the achievement of certain levels of sales or other client-determined criteria specified in the client contract. We recognize performance-based revenue by measuring our actual results against the performance criteria specified in the contracts. Amounts collected from clients prior to the performance of services are recorded as deferred revenue, which is recorded in Other Short-Term Liabilities or Other Long-Term Liabilities in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets.
Hybrid - Hybrid models include production rate and performance-based elements. For these types of arrangements, we allocate revenue to the elements based on the relative fair value of each element. Revenue for each element is recognized based on the methods described above.
Certain client programs provide for adjustments to monthly billings based upon whether we meet or exceed certain performance criteria as set forth in the contract. Increases or decreases to monthly billings arising from such contract terms are reflected in revenue as earned or incurred.
Periodically, we make certain expenditures related to acquiring contracts or provide up-front discounts for future services to existing clients (recorded as Contract Acquisition Costs in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets). Those expenditures are capitalized and amortized in proportion to the expected future revenue from the contract, which in most cases results in straight-line amortization over the life of the contract. Amortization of these costs is recorded as a reduction of revenue.
Income Taxes
We account for income taxes in accordance with the authoritative guidance for income taxes, which requires recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future income tax consequences of transactions that have been included in the Consolidated Financial Statements. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the difference between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities using tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. When circumstances warrant, we assess the likelihood that our net deferred tax assets will more likely than not be recovered from future projected taxable income. We continually review the likelihood that deferred tax assets will be realized in future tax periods under the "more likely than not" criterion. In making this judgment, we consider all available evidence, both positive and negative, in . . .