Call Center News

EMEA Call Center Outsourcing Growth Expected to Continue

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - Fuelled by positive economic movement in central and eastern Europe, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the call center outsourcing market is likely to grow at a steady pace. The vast majority of large, medium and small businesses in EMEA continue to seek cost reductions, focus on building core competencies and gain economies of scale through smart investments in outsourcing. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, EMEA Contact Center Outsourcing Market, reveals that the market earned revenues of $11.20 billion in 2006 and estimates to reach $16 billion in 2012.

"While the UK outsourcing market is very mature and has almost reached saturation, there are significant opportunities in other European nations," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Michael DeSalles. "The Netherlands along with Central and Eastern Europe hold tremendous promise for new outsourcing contracts, especially in financial services, communications and information technology."

Hanaro T&I to Utilize IBM's Jeonju City, Korea Call Center

Seoul, Korea - IBM announced today that it has entered into a Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) contract with Hanaro T&I Inc. to transform and manage its call center operations, streamlining Hanaro T&I's business operations and improving customer service. The service will be delivered out of IBM's first BTO delivery center in Jeonju City, Korea, which was jointly opened today by representatives from IBM Korea, Jeonju City, Jeonju Kijeon College and Hanaro Telecom. Hanaro T&I is the first customer in IBM Korea's newly opened BTO delivery center in Jeonju City, which will provide advanced call center services. The center will be expanded over time to provide support to other Korean companies to meet the growing demand for process outsourcing and transformation in Korea.

Call Centers on Alert for Possible Pandemic

CINCINNATI, OH - Towelettes in packets about half the size of a business card have become a huge commodity for Convergys Corporation. The company is buying the disinfecting wipes by the millions for use by employees of its 72 call centers across the world. The world's largest call center outsourcing company, which also provides human resources and billing services, considers the towelettes a first line of defense against the threat of a global pandemic from bird flu or other highly contagious disease.

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Lack of Skills Cloud Philippine Call Center Boom

In a sprawling office in the Philippine financial district of Makati, rows and rows of Filipinos sit in front of computers answering calls made by Americans. Although answering calls from the other side of the world may sound too simple, call centers have become a "sunrise industry" in this country. The government sees it as the growth driver of the economy. The emergence of BPOs (business-process outsourcing) is one of the reasons our economy is holding on despite a lot of difficulties. The BPO industry opens up a whole new world of employment opportunities for Filipinos, generating millions of pesos for the country’s economic stability.

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Solid Cactus Now Offers Call Center Services

WILKES-BARRE, PA -- June 22, 2006 -- You just opened your first e-commerce store, the orders are coming in, but you're too busy picking and packing to answer the phone and reply to customer email. It's a common scenario for many business owners, but there is a solution. Introducing Call Center Services from Solid Cactus.

The latest product offering from Solid Cactus is designed for the small to medium size business looking to add a customer service department to their operation while not taking on the expense and hassle associated with hiring, training and managing employees.

Labor Shortages Plague Philippine Call Center Industry

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), which claims to have the biggest call centers in the country as members, said industry projections far outnumber the estimated number of workers qualified to work in call centers. "The contact sector accounted for 112,000 employees in 2005.This is expected to increase to 179,200 or a 60% growth by the end of 2006. The problem lies because there is so much demand for contact center workers, while the talent pool continues to dwindle," said Raffy David, a director of the CCAP and director of call center firm Pilipinas Teleserv.

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Move Over, India: Jerusalem Becomes New Call Center Power

Jerusalem, Isreal -- Pacing the floor of his cubicle, a young man in Jerusalem speaks into his headset to an American client named Brandy over 6,000 miles away and convinces her not to terminate her American Online membership. Around him, hundreds of other agents are hustling to find and keep clients at IDT Global Services, Israel's largest call center.

"It is one of the only places outside of the U.S. that you have this type of concentration of highly skilled native" speakers of American English, said Yoel Keren, 34, who immigrated to Israel from Oklahoma and works in the company's AOL department. "That is the edge you cannot get anywhere else."

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Call Center Jobs in the Philippines: Hope for the Unemployed?

Quezon City, Philippines -- Trade Secretary Peter Favila said that the Philippines is not lacking in work. Unemployed Filipinos are just choosy. He cited applicants in call centers who supposedly back out after learning that they would have to start from graveyard shifts. But many call center agents are actually graduates of courses like engineering, computer science, nursing, pre-law, psychology and others who got into this line of work because they could find no other jobs.

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KMU slaps Philippines Call Center Industry as "Hub for Exploitation"

Even as the contact center industry continues to provide jobs to Filipinos, civil rights group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) is accusing the contact center industry of being a "hub for exploitation" and even blamed the industry for stunting the country’s economic growth. KMU Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat said in a statement that Filipino contact center agents are paid much lower wages than their US counterparts, pointing to exploitation by multinational firms. He noted that entry-level workers have an average salary of 15,000 pesos while their US counterparts earn nearly 40,000 pesos per month.

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ACS Wins Multi-Million Dollar IT Outsourcing Contract With Burger King

DALLAS, TX -- March 27, 2006 -- Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (NYSE: ACS), a premier provider of business process outsourcing and information technology solutions, announced today that it has been awarded a multi-million dollar information technology outsourcing (ITO) contract with Burger King Corporation, a global leader in the restaurant industry.