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EMEA Automatic Call Distributor Systems Markets
Frost & Sullivan, Dec 2004
Small and Medium Contact Centre Markets Present New Growth Opportunities
With large contact centres of over 400 agent seats in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region reaching saturation, future growth opportunities are expected to stem from small and medium contact centres. In fact, the under-60 seat market segment will be the fastest growing segment accounting for more than half of EMEA’s call centres in the next few years. Central and eastern European countries, in particular, are experiencing increased levels of outsourcing, especially in the under-60 seat segment due to low cost of labour, inexpensive real estate and a multilingual labour pool. Suppliers of automatic call distributors (ACD) need to focus on lowering prices or roll out products with reduced functionality for easy access to the small and medium call centre segment. Foray into the small and medium contact centre markets also necessitates efficient channel development with distributors, resellers and system integrators that posses the geographical reach and credibility to make in-roads into the local markets.
This Frost & Sullivan research evaluates challenges, drivers, restraints and key trends in the EMEA ACD markets. Through extensive primary and secondary research, this analysis provides contact centre vendors with a detailed look at the current dynamics in this marketplace. The study also identifies new growth opportunities in the ACD market and offers strategic recommendations to vendors for increasing their revenues.
Interest in IP Contact Centres is Fuelling Growth in ACD Systems Market
Future growth in the ACD market is expected to come from the shift from traditional time division multiplexing (TDM) to Internet protocol (IP)-based call centres. 'Apart from the virtualisation benefits gained from moving to an IP architecture, call centre operators are able to increase the productivity of their agents while minimising operational and labour costs,' observes the analyst of this research. IP technology in contact centres also enables advanced routing functions and productivity enhancing applications besides facilitating call centre operators to tap a larger labour pool.
However, the migration to IP contact centres will occur in phases and is expected to start in western and eastern Europe where outsourcing is the fastest growing vertical. While Western Europe has a higher penetration rates in large call centres, most of the call centres in Eastern Europe are Greenfield deployments, and therefore, are able to run IP without any significant capital expenditure.
EMEA ACD Systems Market Poised for Growth
Although Asia Pacific is the favoured destination for cost-cutting activities, outsourcing is emerging as one of the fastest growing verticals in EMEA. 'With the increased adoption of IP contact centres, growth of the outsourcing market segment, cultural acceptance of telecommuting and the release of capital expenditure for technology purchases, EMEA is seeing an increase in the number of agent positions in call centres,' says the analyst. Due to the demographical diversity in Europe, a majority of the call centre operators and service providers prefer agents that are multilingual in order to reduce staffing expenditures. While services, communications and industries are the largest call centre verticals in EMEA, healthcare and government are expected to be the upcoming verticals through 2008.
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