Even though the global economy is in the glut of a rather lengthy period stagnation, the call center outsourcing sector saw substantial growth in 2011, and is expected to continue the trend into the New Year. The growth is being driven by the need for English-speaking centers beyond the United States as well as more knowledge intensive services.

In an interview with BuinsessWorld Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) Executive Director Jojo J. Uligan said, ““Even if we don’t have the final numbers yet, we believe we’re going to surpass our projected load of 15-20 percent in 2011. We’ll probably end up at 21 percent even if the world economy isn’t doing as well... that is the current assumption and we are still gathering data for the industry.”

While the connection may not be immediately clear, continued down turn and cost cutting in the financial and healthcare industries may be behind the growth of this sector of outsourcing.  One can assume that the need for outsourced call center options increases as the internal staff shrinks to accommodate cuts. The new isn’t great for the economy over all, but for call center outsourcers it means an uptick in activity.

“We saw improvements in health care services and the financial subsector in 2011. For 2012, we still have to validate which ones we’ll focus on for growth, since we’ll need to realign strategies depending on which industries to target,” Ulligan said in the same interview.

While growth for call center outsourcing operations has continued to see growth, current legislation could throw a wrench in the trend.  In a recent article TMC’s (News - Alert) Tracey Schelmetic said, “The bill in question is HB 3596, also called the “Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill” and it was submitted last month by its sponsors, Reps. Tim Bishop (D-NY), David Mckinley (R-WV) and Mike Michaud (D-TX). If enacted, HB 3596 would require overseas call center employees to disclose their location to U.S. consumers, and it would give customers the right to be transferred to a U.S.-based call center if they wish.”

While the proposed bill has not gone up for vote yet, it will be interesting to see how these new requirements will affect the growth in this market segment.

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Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca