IP technology is growing but contact centres are still wary about migrating, says a new report by growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan.
The total market size of contact centres in the EMEA region was 34 674 in 2004, the report estimates, and forecasts market growth at a compound annual growth rate of 5% to 44 574 by 2009.
Emerging IP technology and multi-channel communication are likely to drive continued and strong demand for contact centre infrastructure, says the report.
Multi-channel applications will benefit from the constant demand for new modes of communication that leverage the convergence of media. Adoption of these applications is likely to be particularly high in traditional contact centres.
With e-mail and Web chat applications fast gaining popularity, Frost & Sullivan expects multi-channel contact centre applications to account for 20% of the total shipments by 2009.
The growth of these and other advanced applications is expected to drive adoption of IP contact centre solutions, which Frost & Sullivan estimates will grow to 17% of the total market shipments by 2009.
The report says that while IP solutions are widely believed to be the next big thing in the market and could offer significant cost-savings, contact centres are still wary about migrating to IP technology due to the complexity of the environment and the strategic nature of customer communications.
"Since contact centres are typically risk-averse businesses, vendors will need to promote migration to IP as a way of capitalising on financial and business opportunities," notes Frost & Sullivan research analyst Shomik Banerjee. "In addition, simple and cost-effective enablement of virtual and distributed architectures, a growing mobile workforce and the need for a flatter architecture for easier maintenance are likely to increase IP adoption over the forecast period."
With increasing adoption of IP, the contact centre market is likely to see greater virtualisation and consolidation in an effort to reduce operating expenditure.
Among other important trends, the market is gradually shifting focus from efficiency to efficacy, says Frost & Sullivan. As this happens, contact centres are likely to consider adopting IP technology to achieve the new targets of productivity enhancement and effectiveness in business processes.
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