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VoIP Helps Push Call Centres Offshore |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Monday, 21 August 2006 |
Contact Centres will continue to head offshore in the coming
years, according to Frost & Sullivan, building on more than US$2.17 billion
worth of customer care contracts from U.S.
and U.K. companies already were
serviced out of places like India
and the Philippines
in 2005.
The low labour cost, increasing competition, globalisation
and increased IP Telephony adoption, and improved network infrastructure is driving
the contact centre outsourcing market in Asia Pacific, says the analyst.
Banking, telecommunications and technology sectors are
likely to fuel this growth as customer service and technical support services
are on the rise.
This could result in revenues for the Asia Pacific outsourced call centre industry
as high as US25.1 billion by the end of 2012.
This figure includes revenues for the 13 major Asia Pacific
economies and will rise from the US$7.2 billion those economies made in 2005.
"Offshore outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has driven
the growth in the contact centre outsourcing market in Asia-Pac, and is
expected to continue to be the key growth driver," explains Frost &
Sullivan industry analyst Shivanu Shukla.
"Proximity to the West, cultural similarities within Asia
Pacific, and increased focus on outsourcing and off-shoring by the governments
in Asia Pacific are expected to boost growth".
However, while the dual technology influences of better networks and VoIP technologies
are helping the growth, other factors are causing concerns for the outsourcers.
Employment as a contact centre agent is not perceived as a great career option
in most parts of the region, says Shukla. Poor pay leads to high attrition levels
and demand for skilled agents is on the increase.
Data security is also seen as a significant issues, especially
since some highly publicised privacy breaches earlier this year.
Frost & Sullivan says outsourcers in India and other
offshore destinations are taking stringent measures to ensure that data
security is maintained.
ISO and COPC (Customer Operations Performance Centre)
certifications, along with Six Sigma processes are gradually being adopted by
outsourcers to increase the confidence level of customers and enterprises that
outsource their customer information to the Asia Pacific region.
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