Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Business: Asia-Pac contact centre industry unaffected by US Woes

Singapore (BUSINESS WIRE) - The current economic slump in the US has not had a major impact on the Asia-Pacific contact centre applications market in 2007. Except for the Philippines where some deals were deferred, almost all other Asia-Pac countries saw contact centres increasing their investments on equipment and applications to improve customer interaction services.

Revenues in the Asia-Pac contact centre applications market rose 12.2 per cent (year-on-year) in 2007, and is expected to grow by 14.2 per cent this year.

Frost & Sullivan however believes that if the US financial crisis continues, demand for contact centre applications will dive in late 2008 and 2009, especially from the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.enterprisecommunications.frost.com), Asia Pacific Contact Centre Applications Market, finds that the market - covering 14 Asia-Pacific countries - earned revenues of US$665.4 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach US$1.31 billion by end-2014, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 10.2 per cent (2007-2014).

The top three markets by revenue in 2007 were Japan which accounted for about 24.9 per cent (US$165.5 million), followed by India at 17.8 per cent (US$118.6 million) and Australia at 15.3 per cent (US$101.7 million).

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides service providers, vendors/manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the Asia-Pacific contact centre applications market, then send an e-mail to Sarah Lourdes at sarah.lourdes@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

"Customer service has taken high priority amongst organisations in Asia," says Frost & Sullivan industry manager Shivanu Shukla. "Business users are placing greater emphasis on contact centre performance, thus investing more on sophisticated applications such as quality monitoring, voice portals and analytics solutions."

According to the study, other key growth drivers include strong economic growth in Asia-Pacific driving new call centre set-ups and expansion in some countries, the migration to IP driving upgrades and replacements, as well as offshoring business from high-cost markets such as the US and Europe.

Shukla notes, "The call centre industry saw robust growth in the ASEAN region by way of new greenfield sites, over and above expansions and upgrades.

"Offshoring and outsourcing operations continue to thrive in the Philippines, India, Malaysia and China, as more deals were seen from the US and Europe due to the cost-friendly factors such as cheaper labour and overheads of Asian outsourcing hubs," he says, adding that the credit crunch in the US is expected to drive more growth in the offshoring business as cost reduction takes top priority for US businesses.

Countries like Malaysia gained stronger traction from other ASEAN countries, while China continues to add momentum from its burgeoning domestic contact centre needs, as well as from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Mature contact centre markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea saw increasing migration towards IP-based contact centre solutions. In fact, these countries experienced a higher degree of replacement and upgrade exercises by existing contact centres, rather than new centre developments.

In 2007, uptake of contact centre solutions in the government sector saw a marked increase, particularly in the mature markets, as citizen emergency help lines, tax offices and other sites supporting such e-Government initiatives got underway.

Shukla believes that self-service contact centre applications and unified contact centre solutions will see greater adoption as the need to keep labour overheads low and the merits of unified communications become increasingly apparent.

The Asia Pacific Contact Centre Applications Market study is part of the Enterprise Communications Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: hosted contact centres, UC quarterly trackers, UC end user studies (selected countries), enterprise telephony, managed telephony services, and conferencing and collaboration.
All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. Analyst interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 30 offices on six continents.

For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth
Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com. Frost & SullivanSarah
Lourdes, +603.6207.1030 Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific
sarah.lourdes@frost.com

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