Having two great-grandparents who emigrated from Sweden
at the end of the nineteenth century (thus I am Erik
with the letter k), when the invitation to come and
investigate Sweden as a hotspot for contact centers
came, having never seen the land of one quarter of my
forebears, I felt impelled to go.
Flying into Arlanda Airport outside of Stockholm, one
notices a landscape shaped by ice and water; the sea
gives way to flat lands as lakes and bogs, fields and
trees stretch out below (signs of Sweden's sea-faring
tradition, I saw several cargo ships plying the waters
of the Baltic, something I had never seen before in many
transoceanic flights). From the Arlanda terminal, Kevin
Mayer, editorial director of our sister publication, Communication
Solutions, and I took the long escalator ride
far down into the earth to catch the express train into
downtown Stockholm, where we would join a group of
fellow journalists to explore the world of call center
opportunities in the land of the mobile phone with the
guidance of the Invest in
Sweden Agency (ISA). Walking out onto the streets of
Stockholm I felt at home as Swedes greeted each other
with, "Hej, hej," which is pronounced the same as the
familiar greeting I grew up with down South: "Hey."
Kai Hammerich, director-general of the ISA, gave an
overview of the international flavor of the Swedish
economy and foreign investment in Sweden. Ten countries,
led by the U.K., Finland, the U.S. and Germany, make up
over 80 percent of international inward investment in
Sweden, and Sweden ranked fourth internationally behind
the U.S., Belgium and the U.K. in 1999 in international
inward development. Sweden's economic growth rate was
four percent in 2000, it has an unemployment rate of
four percent and available capital in Sweden has
increased as investors have had a closer look at the
market, cost structure and competencies Sweden offers,
as well as business costs that are lower than Germany,
the U.S., Belgium, the U.K., France and the Netherlands.
At present, there are around 4,500 foreign-owned
companies in Sweden. The Baltic countries, Nordic states
and the U.K. are Sweden's largest trading partners.
Investments are becoming more focused on
competencies, and prominent business clusters offered in
Sweden include IT and telecom (IDC ranked Sweden number
one in IT infrastructure and users). According to Mr.
Hammerich, Sweden is in a good position for growth for
the future because of: 1) internationalization (Sweden
went international after World War II because of a small
home market -- a generation ahead of the rest of
Europe); 2) it traditionally has had a technology-minded
people; and 3) it has decentralized, flat governmental
organization that can act quickly.
Lars Reinius, head of the ISA's call center project,
detailed Sweden's call center scene. The ISA began its
call center initiative in 1997 and has participated in
50 establishments representing 3,000 seats since that
time. The ISA points to a regional approach as being
most sensible to cover Europe, with Sweden being the
logical choice for Scandinavia. Mr. Reinius pointed out
that Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea region is the
fastest growing in Europe, with 25 million consumers in
the Scandinavian market and 85 million consumers in the
Baltic Sea region, and the GDP is in the same range as
that of the U.K.
In 2000, the number of call centers serving this
region from Sweden was 1,100 (growing by 150 annually)
that employed 45,000 workers, with 12,000 new employees
being added every year, and the ISA is predicting an
annual growth rate of 19 percent from 2001 to 2004. All
told, one percent of Swedes work in call centers. In the
outsourcing sector as of June of this year, there were
9,600 seats in 142 outsourcing companies (growing at 35
percent annually), with the median size of the
outsourcing companies standing at 22 seats. The majority
of these companies concentrate on providing
high-value-added, business-to-business services for the
financial, telecom and IT help desk sectors, with 77
percent of their work being conducted in more than one
language and 62 percent of it using English. In closing,
Mr. Reinius left us with the message: "Go regional."
The Regional Approach Of The ECCA
Mark Smedley, the U.S. manager of the European
Call Center Alliance (ECCA), echoed the "go regional"
theme. (The ECCA is a consortium of five different
inward investment agencies located in Sweden [ISA], the
U.K. [Manchester Investment and Development Agency
Service], Germany [the Saarland Economic Promotion
Corporation], France [The Moselle Economic Development
Agency], and Spain [Ajuntament de Barcelona]). As there
are 15 languages and multiple regulatory environments,
the ECCA provides local contacts on a Europe-wide basis.
Mr. Smedley described how thinking on providing call
center coverage in Europe has evolved from one of a
national model to a pan-European model to a regional
markets model. According to Mr. Smedley, a country model
means more labor, more back offices, multiple vendors
and a subsequent underutilization of technology. A pan-European model of coverage means less facilities and
staff, but drawbacks include lack of language skills,
high turnover, high telecom cost for distant places and
severe problems if a single site is down; the last is
overcome with a regional approach, which allows calls to
be routed over a network. Companies that have embraced a
regional approach to Europe include Hewlett-Packard and
Microsoft, and outsourcing agencies including Sykes,
Stream, Convergys and Teleperformance.
Mid Sweden University
Educating the future contact center professionals of
Sweden is a role Mid Sweden University has taken on.
Hans Tegebeck, senior adviser, HUB Sweden, ISA and Dr.
Christer Strandberg, a professor at Mid Sweden
University, explained the contact center educational
training that has been in place at Mid Sweden University
since 1999. The university is working in cooperation
with Dr. Jon Anton at Purdue University as well as with
other universities and various companies to provide a
thorough curriculum. The 40-week advanced study program
in CRM stresses that the focus of all business
activities should be the customer through studies in
Internet marketing, management accounting, service
management, business processes, organization and
culture, and learning organization and organization
change. The two-part, 80-week contact center management
course (which is a distance education, part-time studies
course) provides students studies in the following:
leadership and motivation, CRM, business processes from
a business perspective, contact centers in the new
economy, shared services management and research method.
During their studies, students learn about the evolution
of the call center into the contact center into
organizational CRM and the need to measure quality. Dr.
Strandberg mentioned that when outsourcing CRM, there
can be a tendency to lose the concept of the customer,
so he hopes the students who complete the course will
keep in mind the lessons they learned at Mid Sweden
University about the importance of keeping their
customers' concerns squarely in focus at all times as
they make their way through the demands of the working
world.
The East Sweden Region
In the heart of East Sweden, one and a half to two hours
south of Stockholm by train (depending upon in which
city you debark), lie the twin cities of Linkping and
Norrkping. Ronny Mrtensson, chief officer of the
local department for industrial and commercial
development, City of
Linkping, Elisabet Rydberg, project manager at the
East Sweden
Development Agency and Agneta Hedfors, business
consultant, City of
Norrkping, laid out the details of business in
Linkping and Norrkping to a discriminating group of
journalists in the fine old city hall of Linkping.
Ericsson and Nokia both have plants in the region and
Saab Aerospace has been in Linkping for 60 years and
has a workforce of 5,500. There are around 30 companies
in the area with call center activities, with Convergys
setting up shop here in 1998 and Transcom in 1999. Local
government cooperates with companies for training, and
homes in the region are being wired for convergent
communications, making the region a test market for home
communications products. The unemployment rate is less
than four percent for the region. The East Sweden
region, while it may not have the hustle and bustle of
Stockholm, offers a civilized way of life and many
opportunities for businesses and a cost of living lower
than that of Stockholm.
Linkping, which officially dates back to the 13th
century, is a town of 130,000 and has a charming old
town section. There are approximately 10,000 businesses
in Linkping, and the employment runs 35 percent in the
public sector and 23 percent in manufacturing.
Linkping is in the midst of converting a former
military base into a commercial development area.
Linkping University, which opened in the 1970s, now
has 20,000 students, 42 percent of whom are in
technology studies, and Linkping is the number two
city in Sweden for graduated engineers. Near the
University is Mjrdevi Science Park, which has 5,300
employees in 150 companies and various national research
organizations. The companies in the park specialize in
software, IT and telecommunications. Mjrdevi is the
biggest science park in Europe and the ninth largest in
the world. Linkping is also home to the Berzelius
Science Park, which focuses on medical and bioscience
companies.
Nearby Norrkping is a former factory town of
120,000, and is in the midst of a transformation from
old economy to new. In the city center, former
industrial buildings such as old paper mills are being
renovated for high-tech companies, as local workers are
also undergoing a transformation from industrial to
knowledge workers. Like Linkping, Norrkping is home
to a science park, the ProNova Knowledge Ecology and
Science Park, which is located in the center of town in
renovated industrial buildings, as is the Norrkping
campus of Linkping University, which has 5,000
students. The city is home to many small companies, but
also large ones such as Whirlpool Sweden and Holmen
Paper. While the city has a strong industrial heritage,
it is now actively seeking to increase the number of
call centers located there.
For a detailed look at some of the call centers
operating in Sweden, see "Inside
Swedish Call Centers."
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SITEL And Avaya Demo Center Opens
SITEL Corp. and Avaya, Inc. recently cut the ribbon on
their joint executive briefing and demonstration center,
located at SITEL's North American headquarters in Omaha,
Nebraska. The center offers a customer relationship
management design workshop with interactive
demonstrations of CRM technologies presented by contact
center experts. The showcase center serves as a briefing
facility for both companies, and demonstrates integrated
CRM applications including intelligent work
distribution, Web chat, Web collaboration, callback,
interactive voice response (IVR), e-mail content
analysis, fax and Web interaction, unified customer
databases and reporting across multimedia access
channels. Presentations at the executive briefing and
demonstration center combine the capabilities of Avaya's
Interaction Management solutions with SITEL's delivery
and management methodologies to offer corporate leaders
a blueprint for converting their call centers to
customer-centric contact centers. A second center is
scheduled to open later this year in Brussels, Belgium.
IRT Opens Florida Center
IRT, a multichannel contact center services provider,
announced the opening of a new 6,000-square-foot Human
Resources and Development Center in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. The facility brings the company's campus to
40,000 square feet, including its state-of-the art call
center facility and corporate offices. The new space
features recruiting offices and applicant testing
stations, three classrooms that can accommodate up to 82
participants, conference facilities, interviewing rooms
and an employee lounge. IRT offers a range of customer
relationship management services including inbound and
outbound teleservices outsourcing, Web site response,
inbound technical support, customer retention programs
and fulfillment.
StarTek Touches Down In Canada
StarTek, Inc. announced plans to open a
53,000-square-foot facility in Kingston, Ontario,
Canada. StarTek purchased the new four-story building
and 8.7 acres of land, which will allow for future
expansion. The building will be fitted with
state-of-the-art e-CRM telecommunications systems to
provide technical support and customer service for
clients. The site will employ over 1,000 people when
fully occupied and will operate 24/7. The hiring of new
associates is currently in progress. StarTek's
integrated outsourced process management services
include provisioning management for complex
telecommunications systems, high-end inbound technical
support, e-commerce support and fulfillment, Internet
support and supply chain management services. Bill
Meade, president and CEO of StarTek stated, "We want to
especially acknowledge the efforts of Steve Kelly,
president and CEO of the Kingston Economic Development
Corporation, without whose extraordinary efforts this
new facility would not be possible. We look forward to
becoming a vital part of the Kingston community."
SimStar Settles In
At New Headquarters
SimStar Internet Solutions, a provider of
marketing-focused e-business solutions to the
pharmaceutical and health care industries, has relocated
its Princeton, New Jersey headquarters to the Carnegie
Center, also in Princeton. The 30,000-square-foot space
is almost three times larger than its former
headquarters. In the past year, SimStar has increased
its staff by more than 50 percent to over 100 employees,
proving to be an important asset to the region and a
contributor to employment growth. SimStar has
experienced rapid growth over the past three years and
was recognized among the 500 fastest-growing, privately
held companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine for the
second consecutive year.
Stream Online In British Columbia
CRM outsourcing and support services provider Stream
International opened its third Canadian customer
interaction center in Chilliwack, British Columbia. At
full capacity, the company expects to employ
approximately 900 people. The City of Chilliwack,
through its economic development organization, the
Chilliwack Economic Partners Corp. (CEPCO), is mandated
to create new employment, expand the commercial tax base
in Chilliwack and create economic growth in the
community. The Province of British Columbia, through the
Linx BC program, provided $500,000 to assist in the
training of workers for the new facility. Other
financial assistance was achieved from Human Resources
Development Canada, the Provincial Ministry of Social
Development and Economic Security and the local Sto:lo
First Nations community to support the training of the
new employment positions at the Stream Center. Stream
expects to fill its site management positions primarily
from the local Chilliwack area.
AFFINA Expands Facility, Program
Support For Medicare Services
AFFINA announced plans to expand its inbound
1-800-MEDICARE program in support of service goals
announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. The company currently manages inbound
services, support and literature fulfillment for
Medicare recipients who call the toll-free information
number for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS). AFFINA will operate 24/7 and add an
advanced level of customer service support to help
Medicare beneficiaries identify and select HMOs. The
enhanced services will add about 80 new jobs at AFFINA's
Peoria, Illinois operation. The facility also will
provide literature management and distribution,
telecommunications management and an information
warehouse from which data are collected and used to
identify opportunities to enhance the 1-800-MEDICARE
program and other Medicare initiatives. AFFINA expanded
the Peoria center by adding 10,000 square feet of
service area and updating the facility's technologies.
Additionally, the company will open a 40,000-square-foot
customer contact center in Suffolk, Virginia that will
employ up to 450 people.
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