‘Indian cos edging out US outsourcing firm

Indian firms are edging out US outsourced call centre agents from the world market, says leading US-based analyst firm Datamonitor. In a recent study, the firm found that the tight profit margins were driving outsourcers to move offshore.

It saw the largest benefits going to Canada, India and the Philippines. The Datamonitor report on ‘Contact Centre Outsourcing in the United States’ said outsourcers were being forced to reinvent themselves by merging, partnering or competing with other types of companies in a bid to stay in the international arena.

It be noted that nine out of 10 jobs lost in the US contact centre outsourcing industry would be outbound telemarketing jobs as a consequence of the do-not-call registry and the higher revenues offered by inbound work. “In addition, the number of agent positions in offshore and nearshore countries will continue to grow, due to the growing demand from the US and captive market businesses,” it said. In 2004, 37% of the world’s outsourced contact centre agent positions were in the US.

By 2008, Datamonitor expects that number to shrink to 25%. In fact, the number of the US agent positions (AP) is expected to drop from 3,15,000 in 2004 to 2,91,000 in 2008.

Bangalored?
• US outsourcers are merging, partnering or competing with other types of companies in a bid to stay in the international arena
• 90% jobs lost in US outsourcing industry would be outbound telemarketing jobs on the back of do-not-call registry
“The boundaries between the US-based contact centre providers and other business process outsourcers are dissolving, and firms are invading each others’ territories,” said Datamonitor associate analyst Ri Pierce-Grove.

There have been at least eight publicly announced acquisitions since 2003, and Datamonitor expects this trend to continue,” it added.

Firms that were founded as contact centre outsourcers are offering services which overlap other business process outsourcing (BPO) areas, and BPO providers are acquiring contact centre capability.

“As the market contracts through to 2009, it will be imperative for outsourcing service providers to choose between competing on the basis of cost or reinventing themselves,” Pierce-Grove added.

The report sizes and segments the contact centre market in the US from 2004 to 2009. Data sets include total number of contact centres, APs, regional AP distribution, contact centre sizeband distribution and vertical market.

New to this report is a methodology based on ARPAP (average-revenue per-agent-position), examination of contact centre outsourcing in relation to other types of BPO and competitive profiles of the major outsourcers.