Abstract
EMEA Hosted IP Contact Centre Market Driven by Growing Outsourcing Trend
Increased outsourcing of telecommunications infrastructure and services is primarily driving the
hosted IP contact centre markets in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Adoption of
the hosted IP telephony model in this region is on the rise as existing carriers look to enhance
their portfolio of offerings and develop the new revenue stream provided by voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) traffic. Although the market is still in a formative stage and the technology is
novel, the potential therein is huge: as much as 7.9 per cent of the installed base is likely to use
hosted IP contact centre services in EMEA by 2009. Ultimately, hosted IP contact centre services are
expected to emerge as a complementary service to premise-based telephony systems.
This Frost & Sullivan research provides a comprehensive overview of the constantly evolving
hosted IP contact centre market in EMEA, focusing on major technology trends and issues related to
the competitive environment. It also provides in-depth and up-to-date market size estimates and
forecasts.
Hosted Service Shifts Risk from Enterprises to Service Providers
"Hosted IP contact centres shift the ownership of infrastructure from the enterprises to the
service providers," remarks the analyst of this research service. "The shift of technology
risk from the end user to the service provider coupled with low exit barriers for end users is
helping to promote hosted IP contact centre services." Enterprises are showing more willingness
to test these solutions, particularly since hosted IP telephony offers them access to converged
telephony infrastructure at a lower cost.
While small enterprises have shown substantial interest in hosted contact centre services, large
firms are also evaluating the value proposition of outsourcing their telecommunication requirements.
These organisations appear to prefer outsourcing to a single service provider.
Hosted IP Contact Centres to Bring in New Opportunities for Carriers, SIs and VARs
The growing adoption of hosted IP contact centres has created fresh opportunities for equipment
manufacturers, service providers, value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators (SIs) and
application developers. "Hosted IP contact centres offer service providers a new, recurring
revenue stream," notes the analyst. "The market is likely to significantly grow with
increased market awareness and education, innovative service and price bundling and a robust service
delivery channel."
Enterprises also benefit because of the cost efficiency they gain in terms of moves, additions
and changes. Service providers are emphasising the advantages of cost reduction and productivity
benefits, thereby boosting adoption of hosted IP contact centres. The emergence of integrated access
service is also likely to appeal to enterprises since it enables them to try and test the offering
on a need basis and on a limited scale. | 
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