The contact center market has seen little consolidation over the last three years, in comparison to most other technology markets, the market has continued to grow and few vendors have suffered in the way that CRM applications vendors have suffered. ‘Call Center Growth Strategies: Vendor opportunities in North America and Europe’ is a new management report that highlights where profit opportunities exist for call center technology vendors, customer relationship outsourcing providers, CRM and call center hardware and software resellers, consultants and integrators. The global call center market is a diverse market and spending patterns vary widely from region to region. This report details the market by country, call center size and vertical market to allow vendors and resellers to better focus their call center initiatives.

Table of Contents
 
Call Center Growth Strategies
 
Executive Summary 12
 
Key market drivers 12
 
Call center technologies 13
 
A vertical guide to selling call center technologies 14
 
Opportunities in the EMEA call center market 15
 
Opportunities in the North American call center market 15
 
Call center size bands: big is not always beautiful 16
 
Chapter 1 Introduction 20
 
What is this report about 20
 
Who is the target reader 20
 
Definitions 21
 
Agent position (AP) 21
 
Agents 21
 
Call center 21
 
Contact center 22
 
CRM 22
 
Outsourcing 22
 
Private (automatic) branch exchange (PBX) 22
 
Screen popping 22
 
Speech recognition 23
 
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 23
 
Web-channels 23
 
Web-based self-service 23
 
Chapter 2 Key market drivers 26
 
Summary 26
 
Market context 27
 
Off shoring 27
 
iv
 
Managed and hosted services 29
 
IP migration and distributed environments 30
 
Self-service 31
 
Growth in mid-market 33
 
From hardware to software and open standards 34
 
Multi -channel call centers 35
 
Growth in multi-channel call centers 35
 
Chapter 3 Call center technologies 38
 
Summary 38
 
Definitions 39
 
Automatic call distributor (ACD) 39
 
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) 39
 
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) 40
 
Outbound 40
 
Workforce optimization technologies (WOTs) 40
 
Quality Monitoring (QM) 40
 
Workforce management (WFM) 41
 
eLearning 41
 
Agent analytics 41
 
Market overview 42
 
ACD growth declines in mature markets 42
 
Eastern Europe and MEA offer ACD vendors most promise 43
 
ACD vendors need to locate new opportunities in developing markets 43
 
ACD vendors need to target smaller call centers 44
 
Key issues for ACD vendors 44
 
The effects of IP 44
 
The growth in low-end solutions 45
 
Hosted ACD / call center on demand 45
 
IVR: from call routing to self-service 46
 
IVR spending priorities vary by region 46
 
Rapidly growing verticals pick self-service solutions 47
 
IVR reaches beyond its high-end technology roots 47
 
Key issues for IVR vendors 47
 
Speech recognition and open standards 47
 
Hosting / managed services 47
 
IVR and the broader self-service market 48
 
The self-service / offshore substitution effect 48
 
IVR as part of a broader suite of call center applications 48
 
CTI: an attractive growth market 48
 
Penetration will remain high in developed countries 48
 
Mature verticals continue to dominate CTI investment 49
 
CTI retains high-end focus 50
 
Key issues for CTI vendors 50
 
v
 
The growth of the switch-independent routing market 50
 
Do not ignore multimedia applications 50
 
Networked call centers / managed services 50
 
Inherent CTI 51
 
Regulation drives outbound spending 51
 
Greater support for outbound in the US 51
 
Outsourcing provides growth for outbound 52
 
Growth at both ends of the spectrum 52
 
Key issues for vendors 52
 
Increasing regulation – especially in the US 52
 
Increasing offshore spending 52
 
Growth in proactive service 52
 
Workforce optimization (WOTs) 53
 
Agent analytics the fastest growing sector within WOTs 53
 
Targeting vertical sectors 53
 
WOTs solutions merging 54
 
Key issues for vendors 55
 
Integration is key 55
 
Leverage experience in setting KPIs 55
 
Present clients with a ‘deployment roadmap’ 55
 
Partnerships are key to successful participation in the market 56
 
Consider alternative sources of revenue 56
 
Sell call center experience 56
 
Show demonstrable ROI benefit 56
 
Chapter 4 A vertical guide to selling call
 
center technologies 58
 
Summary 58
 
Introduction 59
 
Heavyweight spenders 59
 
Key growth sectors for call center technologies 62
 
Vertical Insight 63
 
Communications 63
 
Definition 63
 
State of play 63
 
Opportunities for vendors 63
 
What communications call centers will buy 65
 
Distribution and wholesale 65
 
Definition 65
 
State of play 65
 
Opportunities for vendors 66
 
What distribution and wholesale call centers will buy 66
 
Entertainment, media and leisure 67
 
Definition 67
 
State of play 67
 
vi
 
Opportunities for vendors 67
 
What entertainment call centers will buy 68
 
Financial services 69
 
Definition 69
 
State of play 69
 
Opportunities for vendors 70
 
What financial services call centers will buy 70
 
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals 71
 
Definition 71
 
State of play 71
 
Opportunities for vendors 72
 
What healthcare and pharmaceutical call centers will buy 73
 
Manufacturing 74
 
Definition 74
 
State of play 74
 
Opportunities for vendors 75
 
What manufacturing call centers will buy 75
 
Outsourcing 76
 
Definition 76
 
State of play 76
 
Opportunities for vendors 78
 
What outsourcers will buy 78
 
Public sector 79
 
Definition 79
 
State of play 79
 
Opportunities for vendors 80
 
What government call centers will buy 81
 
Retail 82
 
Definition 82
 
State of play 82
 
Opportunities for vendors 83
 
What retail call centers will buy 84
 
Technology 84
 
Definition 84
 
State of play 84
 
Opportunities for vendors 85
 
What technology call centers will buy 86
 
Travel and tourism 86
 
Definition 86
 
State of play 86
 
Opportunities for vendors 87
 
What travel and tourism call centers will buy 88
 
Utilities 89
 
Definition 89
 
State of play 89
 
Opportunities for vendors 90
 
What utilities call centers will buy 91
 
vii
 
Chapter 5 Opportunities in the EMEA call
 
center market 94
 
Summary 94
 
Introduction 95
 
Segmenting the market 96
 
Implications for vendors 98
 
Country insight 99
 
France 99
 
Germany 100
 
Italy 101
 
Netherlands 101
 
Spain 102
 
UK 103
 
The Nordics 104
 
Rest of Western Europe 105
 
Eastern Europe 105
 
Middle East and Africa 108
 
Chapter 6 Opportunities in the North
 
American call center market 112
 
Summary 112
 
Introduction 113
 
US call center market 113
 
Regional distribution 114
 
Canadian call center market 115
 
Regional distribution 115
 
Implications for vendors 116
 
Chapter 7 Call center size bands: big is not
 
always beautiful 118
 
Summary 118
 
Global overview 119
 
Implications for vendors 119
 
Call center size bands in EMEA 120
 
Country insight 121
 
France 121
 
Germany 122
 
viii
 
Italy 123
 
Netherlands 124
 
Spain 125
 
UK 126
 
Nordics 127
 
Rest of Western Europe 127
 
Eastern Europe 128
 
Call center size bands in North America 129
 
American size band distribution 129
 
Canadian size band distribution 130
 
Chapter 8 Key vendors in the call center
 
market 134
 
Strategic recommendations 134
 
Call center technology vendors 134
 
Outsourcing providers 134
 
Resellers and system integrators 135
 
Competitive strengths of call center technology vendors 135
 
Vendor strength by technology 136
 
Vendor strength by region 137
 
Vendor strength by size band 138
 
The WOTs market 139
 
Quality Monitoring 139
 
ASC 139
 
Envision 140
 
NICE 140
 
Verint 141
 
Witness 141
 
Workforce Management 142
 
Aspect 142
 
Blue Pumpkin 143
 
Genesys 144
 
IEX 144
 
Teleopti 145
 
Q-MAX 145
 
Agent Analytics 146
 
AIM 146
 
Dictaphone CRS 146
 
Merced Systems 146
 
Performix 147
 
eLearning 148
 
Knowlagent 148
 
ix
 
List of Figures
 
Figure 3.1: Global contact center technology product revenues by technology 42
 
Figure 3.2: The building blocks of WOTs 54
 
Figure 4.3: Call centers in EMEA segmented by vertical market, 2003 & 2008 60
 
Figure 5.4: Call centers and agent positions in EMEA, 2003 – 2008 95
 
Figure 5.5: The EMEA call center universe 97
 
Figure 6.6: North American call center and AP growth, 2003 - 2008 114
 
Figure 7.7: Call centers in EMEA segmented by call center size, 2003 and 2008 121
 
Figure 7.8: American size band distribution of APs (000s), 2003 129
 
Figure 7.9: Canadian size band distribution of call centers, 2003 130
 
List of Tables
 
Table 3.1: Global ACD product revenues by technology 45
 
Table 4.2: North American vertical market distribution (000s), 2003 & 2008 61
 
Table 6.3: Canadian call centers and APs (000s), 2003 - 2008 115
 
Table 8.4: Competitive strengths by technology 136
 
Table 8.5: Competitive strengths by region 137
 
Table 8.6: Competitive strengths by size band 138