Research Overview
Geographic Shifts within EMEA Contact Centre Market Impact Market Dynamics
Important geographical changes taking place in the contact centre market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are altering the dynamics of this market. With these changes, certain locations in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa are emerging as attractive markets due to their many advantages ? low-cost labour, affordable real estate and a multi-lingual workforce. Eastern Europe, in particular, is expected to witness higher growth rates as the increasing outsourcing trend brings new business. This could help offset the saturation in Western Europe in terms of growth in agent positions. While traditional contact centres are witnessing falling growth rates, informal contact centres show great promise. New opportunities are also emerging in the small enterprise segment, particularly in the sub-60 segment.
This Frost & Sullivan research service provides a comprehensive analysis of the contact centre market in the EMEA region. It studies the changing market dynamics and identifies growth opportunities with a special focus on the emerging potential of IP and multi-channel contact centres. It also includes detailed market metrics of total installed base and total agent positions as well as growth forecasts for the same.
Increased Demand for Multimedia Changes Size and Scope of Contact Centres
The contact centre market is always looking for new modes of communication that leverage the convergence of media. Multi-channel applications are experiencing increasing demand and are likely to see stronger adoption in traditional contact centres during the forecast period (2005-2009). While e-mail applications have been on an upward growth curve in mature markets such as Western Europe, other channels of communication such as Web chat are also gaining traction.
"Frost & Sullivan expects multi-channel contact centre applications to account for 20 percent of the total shipments by 2009," says the analyst of this research service. "With the growth of multi-channel communication, IP contact centres are also likely to proliferate."
Replacement Market to Spur Growth
Enterprises in EMEA are gradually increasing their spending on telecom infrastructure, creating significant opportunities for the contact centre industry. Increased capital expenditure (CAPEX) across many verticals is expected to boost demand in the short term. "Many systems that were either installed or upgraded during Y2K are now coming of age," notes the analyst. "This is generating a huge demand through the need for replacement." During this replacement cycle, Frost & Sullivan believes that IP is likely to find strong adoption.