Contact center outsourcing continues to be a viable market as organizations are recognizing the benefits that customer and company interactions deliver to the company overall. And, while the outsourcing industry continues to enjoy growth, it is the offshore outsourcing industry that is experiencing significant expansion.

 

According to the Everest Research Institute, this market has grown rapidly to a US$55 billion opportunity today. By contrast, the offshore contact center market is in a phase of rapid growth. Key regions such as India, the Philippines and Central and Eastern Europe are experiencing growth rates in the range of 25-60 percent CAGR compared with 10-12 percent for global contact center outsourcing over the last three years.

 

Those companies pursuing offshore strategies have encountered multiple challenges when trying to secure stakeholder buy-in, as well as managing transition, operations and performance. Several large companies however, have successfully developed resolution mechanisms to overcome these challenges and continue to pursue strong offshore strategies.

 

Those companies offering outsourcing solutions faced challenges in effective competitive strategies in the past. Going forward, these providers are focusing on the consolidation of processes within the customer management function and across business units within the buyer enterprise as it will be the primary focus of outsourcing.

Companies competing in the customer management outsourcing (CMO) space will need to increase in functional scope and enhance capability to deliver end-to-end scope. For those operating in the enterprise customer management outsourcing (ECMO) space, they will need to integrate solutions across people, process and technology, enabling a unique end-customer view.

In addition, investments in technology solutions – such as VoIP, self-service, workforce/performance management – and global delivery mechanisms – such as blended delivery model across in-house, outsource, offshore global delivery network – will be the primary enablers of this transformation.

Beyond the trends that have emerged in the contact center outsourcing market, both onshore and offshore, there are specific evolutions over the past year that have impacted the current market and its impact into the future.

Such events include significant mergers and acquisitions within the past year. As a result, suppliers are turning to inorganically build capabilities and create differentiation in a fragmented marketplace. In addition, a number of offshore and nearshore contact center locations options emerged, each with different leverage points.

Throughout the global industry, India and Philippines have emerged as the leading offshore destinations for English language support; Central and South America continue to represent strong options for Spanish language support; and each location presents a different trade-off point between the cost, operating risks, maturity of the supply landscape and extent of fit with specific customer geographies.

The contact center outsourcing industry is consistently changing and those that hope to remain competitive must be able to anticipate and embrace these changes in order to drive adoption, revenue and long-term profits.

 

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.