Workforce Management Featured Article
July 24, 2009
DMG: Workforce Optimization Market Grew by 14 Percent to $2.7 Billion in 2008
Market research firm DMG Consulting has released a new report showing that the workforce optimization market – which includes call recording/monitoring, analytics, performance management and workforce management – is one of the only IT sectors that saw growth in 2008.
The firm’s “2009 Quality Management/Liability Recording Market Share Report” shows that the WFO market grew by 14 percent, from about $2.4 billion in 2007 to about $2.7 billion in 2008.
The contact center market contributed to about half of this growth, the report finds. Revenues from WFO solutions for the contact center grew about 4.3 percent during 2008. Although this is only modest growth, the WFO market outperformed many other IT software markets, the report finds.
DMG Consulting attributes the growth to increased spending on security, risk and liability avoidance, and cost reduction.
"One of the more interesting things in 2008 is that the growth of the QM/recording market was largely organic,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting, in a release. “We didn't have any large-scale acquisitions or anything that really shook up the market. What we did have are vendors who continue to provide high-value applications that help end users solve the problems that plague them -- security, risk, liability, quality and cost reduction."
“Also interesting is that the market hit the tipping point for IP-based solutions, as these sales accounted for 61.4 percent of the market,” Fluss continued. “This is a significant change from 2007 when the mix was close to 50/50.”
DMG predicts sales of WFO solutions will slow in 2009 because many banks and investment firms -- which make up a large percentage of WFO solution buyers -- are still trying grappling with the recession and, as a result, are making only essential investments. Still, DMG expects the WFO market to grow by 2 percent to 4 percent this year – which is remarkable considering the current economic climate.
The main reason WFO solutions continue to sell well is because they help companies gain new efficiencies in labor, which in turn reduces operating costs. These solutions enable companies to accurately track employee performance and boost productivity, and, in the case of the contact center, to improve customer service. With a WFO suite of applications, contact centers can record and monitor agent interactions for quality assurance, which in turn helps drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. What’s more, the workforce management applications, with their analytics capabilities, help contact center managers accurately schedule the proper number of agents for any given shift, based on the forecasted number of contacts coming in -- thus affording efficiencies in scheduling that spreadsheets and manual systems simply cannot deliver.
According to the report, there are more than 45 competitors in the contact center WFO market. Virtually all of them market their solutions as cost-saving systems that deliver a rapid return on investment – and due to the recession firms are hungry for systems that help save on labor costs. The report analyzes the revenue and market share of the leading vendors.
In addition to providing growth comparisons for 2008 and 2007, the report tracks the growth of WFO solutions by technology sector, with contact center and non-contact center views. It includes five-year revenue trend analyses for total company GAAP revenue, contact center WFO segments, geographic regions, and verticals. It also includes revenue and market share broken down by hardware/software/services and by geography for the market and individual vendors.
The firm’s “2009 Quality Management/Liability Recording Market Share Report” shows that the WFO market grew by 14 percent, from about $2.4 billion in 2007 to about $2.7 billion in 2008.
The contact center market contributed to about half of this growth, the report finds. Revenues from WFO solutions for the contact center grew about 4.3 percent during 2008. Although this is only modest growth, the WFO market outperformed many other IT software markets, the report finds.
DMG Consulting attributes the growth to increased spending on security, risk and liability avoidance, and cost reduction.
"One of the more interesting things in 2008 is that the growth of the QM/recording market was largely organic,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting, in a release. “We didn't have any large-scale acquisitions or anything that really shook up the market. What we did have are vendors who continue to provide high-value applications that help end users solve the problems that plague them -- security, risk, liability, quality and cost reduction."
“Also interesting is that the market hit the tipping point for IP-based solutions, as these sales accounted for 61.4 percent of the market,” Fluss continued. “This is a significant change from 2007 when the mix was close to 50/50.”
DMG predicts sales of WFO solutions will slow in 2009 because many banks and investment firms -- which make up a large percentage of WFO solution buyers -- are still trying grappling with the recession and, as a result, are making only essential investments. Still, DMG expects the WFO market to grow by 2 percent to 4 percent this year – which is remarkable considering the current economic climate.
The main reason WFO solutions continue to sell well is because they help companies gain new efficiencies in labor, which in turn reduces operating costs. These solutions enable companies to accurately track employee performance and boost productivity, and, in the case of the contact center, to improve customer service. With a WFO suite of applications, contact centers can record and monitor agent interactions for quality assurance, which in turn helps drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. What’s more, the workforce management applications, with their analytics capabilities, help contact center managers accurately schedule the proper number of agents for any given shift, based on the forecasted number of contacts coming in -- thus affording efficiencies in scheduling that spreadsheets and manual systems simply cannot deliver.
According to the report, there are more than 45 competitors in the contact center WFO market. Virtually all of them market their solutions as cost-saving systems that deliver a rapid return on investment – and due to the recession firms are hungry for systems that help save on labor costs. The report analyzes the revenue and market share of the leading vendors.
In addition to providing growth comparisons for 2008 and 2007, the report tracks the growth of WFO solutions by technology sector, with contact center and non-contact center views. It includes five-year revenue trend analyses for total company GAAP revenue, contact center WFO segments, geographic regions, and verticals. It also includes revenue and market share broken down by hardware/software/services and by geography for the market and individual vendors.
Patrick Barnard is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.