Quite a number of businesses and processes fall under the umbrella of contact centre outsourcing, including customer service call centers and sales outsourcing. The good thing though, is that these days, whatever contact center solution a company may need; there is usually a contact center that is willing and able to accommodate their needs. The industry is certainly growing and expanding, with new contract deals being signed, new emerging destinations across various continents, increasing employment, and more service offerings, the contact centre industry is alive and well. Looking at it from a global perspective, a heat map would show a great amount of red areas, showing that there are numerous locations ripe for or tapped by the contact center industry.
Since the industry is already past its infancy stage, developments and challenges now play a major role in bringing the industry to a stable position. Recent news shows the highs and lows in the industry.
The contact center industry in Russia, according to a market analysis conducted by Frost & Sullivan, shows a high probability of an upward movement in terms of growth as innovations of contact center solutions providers are put into effect. Russian contact centers are now doing whatever they can to address the issues that the market has posed. It is mentioned in the article that voice support is the primary solution being sought for in the country but solutions providers are seeing a trend that companies which consider outsourcing are no longer looking for a partner that can provide voice support alone; they are now seeking solutions that are a combination of two different, although not entirely different, solutions.
Etihad Airways, on the other hand has established a contact centre in a near-shore location, which is in the United Kingdom, specifically in Manchester. According to the article, the United Kingdom is the top choice for call center services in Europe as they have a rich talent pool that is multi-lingual and this is one key factor that attracts call center solutions providers. Leading contact centre solution providers, such as Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and Convergys (NYSE:CVG), have established locations across the European continent.
Frost & Sullivan released another research report that studies the contact centre trend across the Asia Pacific region and the analysis reflected a positive outcome. The research showed that despite the global economic crisis, the Asia Pacific region reaped a numerous benefits from the crisis as companies affected by the crisis looked for cost efficient transactions. These companies were seen to have found many of their requirements among outsourcing companies in the Asia Pacific region. Companies preferred outsourcing partners in the Asia Pacific for its large talent pool of workers fluent in English and regional language skills.
But despite these highs in the industry, the industry also experienced a low point these past few weeks. Outsourcing company HCL Technologies (BOM:532281), issued an ultimatum to its employees, either to accept a set of changes to their working conditions or lose their jobs, in Northern Ireland as a series of changes, including changes in their salary scale, leave allowances and healthcare benefits, are to be implemented. One may think that this happens all the time, especially in this type of industry, but in this case, it was more than a thousand employees who received the ultimatum. Such kinds of actions are driven usually by client relations, for example due to a reduction of manpower required working for a specific task.
The industry may experience a couple of low points as they move towards the goal of attaining growth, but the high points definitely make up for it. And it is reflected through most of the recent news that the contact centre industry is indeed growing and expanding.
Author: Jamee C.
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