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Datamonitor Notes Growth In Eastern Europe Call Center OutsourcingEditorial Director, CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions
Market analyst Datamonitor today released a report indicating that the number of call center agents based in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) who are servicing Western business customers from the UK through to Scandinavia, Italy, Germany, Spain and others, will more than triple from 1,900 in 2004 to 6,400 in 2008.
The analyst firm predicts rapid growth in western investment in Central and Eastern Europe. The report notes that CEE countries compete on lower prices than in western Europe and North America, particularly for higher-end contact center services. According to Datamonitor, the Czech Republic and Poland are well suited for call centers servicing German-speaking nations, whose offshore options, the company notes, tend to be limited. Both Poland the Czech Republic also have an excellent base of fluent English speakers.
The Baltic countries have been a strong choice for contact center investors from Scandinavia, due to both close ties linguistically and culturally.
Meanwhile, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia have become obvious choices for Italian firms looking to outsource customer service.
Finally, Datamonitor notes that Hungary remains a very diverse contact center offshore location in the region, with noted fluent speakers in all major western European languages.
For more information, visit www.datamonitor.com.
Tracey Schelmetic is editorial director for CUSTOMER INTER@CTION Solutions. For more articles by Tracey Schelmetic, please visit the archives.
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