The call center outsourcing market is a fast, maturing industry that many people now regard as a commodity business, ‘The Call Center Outsourcing Market Outlook: Developing opportunities in a commodity market’ is a technology management report that will help outsourcing service providers to identify growth opportunities and develop strategies to successfully target them. This report provides in-depth analysis of key market drivers and inhibitors and forecasts to 2008 by region and vertical industry. The competitive landscape is examined in detail including the strengths of key vendors, and strategies for growth including new destinations, expanded service portfolios, evolving pricing models, offshore and near shore, and the emergence of the ‘quality sell’.

Table of Contents
 
The Call Center Outsourcing Outlook
 
Executive summary 12
 
Key drivers 12
 
The EMEA call center outsourcing market 12
 
The US call center outsourcing market 13
 
Offshore outsourcing: India not the only destination 14
 
Call center outsourcing services 15
 
Competitive advantage: succeeding in a commodity market 16
 
Chapter 1 Introduction 20
 
What is this report about 20
 
Who is the target reader 20
 
Definitions 21
 
Agent position (AP) 21
 
ASP (application service provider) 21
 
Call center 22
 
Contact center 22
 
CRM 22
 
IP-architected call center 22
 
Multimedia contact center 23
 
Outsourcing 23
 
Chapter 2 Key drivers 26
 
Summary 26
 
Why outsource? 26
 
Vendor recommendations 27
 
What should I look for in an outsourcer? 28
 
Key future trends 29
 
Chapter 3 The EMEA call center outsourcing
 
market 32
 
Summary 32
 
Market sizing 33
 
Outsourced APs in EMEA 33
 
Country insight 34
 
Outsourcing traffic 36
 
Inbound and outbound traffic 36
 
Vertical focus 37
 
Introduction 37
 
Communications 39
 
Propensity to outsource 41
 
Distribution and wholesale 41
 
Propensity to outsource 41
 
Entertainment, media and leisure 42
 
Propensity to outsource 43
 
Financial services 43
 
Propensity to outsource 45
 
Healthcare 46
 
Propensity to outsource 46
 
Manufacturing 47
 
Propensity to outsource 47
 
Public sector 47
 
Propensity to outsource 49
 
Retail 49
 
Propensity to outsource 50
 
Technology 50
 
Propensity to outsource 50
 
Travel and tourism 51
 
Propensity to outsource 51
 
Utilities 52
 
Propensity to outsource 52
 
Competitive dynamics 53
 
Traditional outsourcing competitors 54
 
Non-traditional competitors 55
 
Strategic recommendations 56
 
Chapter 4 The US call center outsourcing
 
market 58
 
Summary 58
 
Market sizing 59
 
Country insight 60
 
Impact of the TSR on outsourcers 61
 
Outsourcing traffic 63
 
Inbound activity will increase as a proportion of total call center activity 63
 
Impediments to outsourcing growth in the US 64
 
Vertical focus 65
 
Introduction 65
 
Communications 66
 
Education 66
 
Entertainment 67
 
Financial services 67
 
Retail banking 67
 
Insurance 67
 
Investments and securities 67
 
Healthcare and pharmaceutical 68
 
Manufacturing 68
 
Public sector 68
 
Federal government 69
 
State and local government 69
 
Retail 70
 
Technology 70
 
Transport and logistics 70
 
Travel and tourism 70
 
Utilities 71
 
Other vertical markets 72
 
Competitive dynamics 72
 
Systems integrators 72
 
Outsourcing providers 74
 
Strategic recommendations 74
 
Adding more value-add services 74
 
Penetrating new vertical markets 75
 
Use technology as a competitive differentiator 76
 
Establish a global network of call centers in offshore/near shore locations 76
 
Chapter 5 Offshore outsourcing: India not
 
the only destination 80
 
Summary 80
 
Introduction 81
 
Definitions 81
 
Near shore 81
 
Offshore 81
 
The evolution of offshore and near shore outsourcing 82
 
Moving from capital expenditure to operational expenditure 82
 
More demand for multilingual services 83
 
Demand is growing and shifting eastward 83
 
Specific country requirements 84
 
US 84
 
UK 85
 
France 85
 
Germany 86
 
Rest of Europe 87
 
Barriers to off shoring 88
 
‘Losing’ control 89
 
The distance issue 90
 
Cultural affinity 90
 
Quality of service 91
 
Offshore outsourcing strategies 91
 
Offshore destinations 92
 
The language barrier 92
 
Dutch-speaking markets 92
 
English-speaking markets 92
 
French-speaking markets 93
 
German-speaking markets 93
 
Italian-speaking markets 93
 
Spanish-speaking markets 94
 
Profile of the Americas region 94
 
Latin America 95
 
Canada 99
 
Profile of the Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) region 102
 
Hungary 104
 
Poland 104
 
Baltic States 105
 
Czech Republic 106
 
Profile of the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region 106
 
Morocco and Tunisia (North Africa) 107
 
South Africa 108
 
Turkey 109
 
Profile of the APAC region 110
 
India 111
 
Philippines 111
 
Malaysia 112
 
Others 112
 
Future implications of offshore outsourcing 113
 
One-stop shop for end-to-end BPO 113
 
The shadow infrastructure 114
 
Offshore vs. onshore 114
 
Recommendations for vendors 116
 
The quality sell 116
 
Quality agents 116
 
Quality processes 116
 
Refine sales approach 117
 
Carve a niche and partner for success 117
 
Allay customers’ fears 118
 
Chapter 6 Call center outsourcing services 121
 
Summary 121
 
What should you outsource? 122
 
Inbound customer care 122
 
Inbound sales 122
 
Inbound technical support 122
 
Outbound cold calling 123
 
Outbound warm calling 123
 
Outbound customer service call-back 123
 
Outbound collections 123
 
New Internet channels 124
 
Vendor strategies 125
 
Expanding service portfolios 125
 
New services 126
 
New delivery models 126
 
Evolving pricing models 127
 
Risk / reward sharing 128
 
Efficiency sharing pricing models 129
 
Chapter 7 Competitive advantage:
 
succeeding in a commodity
 
market 133
 
Summary 133
 
Introduction 134
 
The bigger picture 134
 
Full service providers (FSPs) 135
 
IT service providers 136
 
Systems integrators 136
 
Telcos 136
 
Telcos with their own outsourcing facilities 136
 
Telcos without their own outsourcing facilities 137
 
Offshore and near shore specialists 137
 
Technology vendors 138
 
Strategic recommendations 138
 
New business generation 138
 
Delivering best practice 139
 
Back office and front office 139
 
Understanding customer concerns 140
 
Procuring outsourcing 140
 
Brand impact 140
 
Managing risk 140
 
Addressing regulatory requirements 141
 
Focus on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 141
 
Focus on the Basel II accord 142
 
Focus on data protection 142
 
Future market outlook 143
 
Chapter 8 Key vendors 145
 
Competitive landscape 145
 
The comfort factor 145
 
Competitive strengths of call center outsourcing vendors 146
 
Accenture 147
 
Service differentiation 148
 
Capgemini 149
 
Service differentiation 149
 
CSC 150
 
Service differentiation 150
 
EDS 150
 
Service differentiation 151
 
HP with BT 152
 
Service differentiation 152
 
IBM Global Services 153
 
Service differentiation 153
 
ICICI-OneSource 154
 
Service differentiation 154
 
Wipro Spectramind 155
 
Service differentiation 155
 
Index 156
 
List of Figures
 
Figure 3.1: In-house and outsourced APs in EMEA, 2002 - 2007 33
 
Figure 3.2: The EMEA call center solar system 34
 
Figure 3.3: Summary of call handling functions 36
 
Figure 3.4: Outsourced APs in EMEA by vertical market 39
 
Figure 4.5: Proportion of APs in the US, 2003-2008 59
 
Figure 4.6: Vertical market comparison, 2003 66
 
Figure 5.7: Barriers to offshore outsourcing 89
 
Figure 5.8: Risk and reward matrix – the Americas region 95
 
Figure 5.9: Canadian outsourced and in-house APs serving the US market 101
 
Figure 5.10: Risk and reward matrix – CEE region 103
 
Figure 5.11: Risk and reward matrix – MEA region 107
 
Figure 5.12: Risk and reward matrix – Asia Pacific region 110
 
Figure 5.13: Offshore outsourced APs are a threat to onshore outsourced APs 115
 
Figure 7.14: Service offerings: how the pieces fit together 135
 
Figure 8.15: Comparison of profiled vendors’ service delivery focus 147
 
List of Tables
 
Table 2.1: Important factors when outsourcing, by country (EMEA) 29
 
Table 5.2: Main offshore and near shore outsourcing locations for the major outsourcing
 
customer markets