Benefits such as Reduced Costs and Flexibility will Drive Outsourcing of Contact Centers in the Asia Pacific Contact Center Markets

The Asia Pacific region comprises developed, developing, and underdeveloped contact center markets and as these markets progress, the demand for better customer service is expected to drive growth in this region. Contact center outsourcing is likely to be a key driver for the growth of the markets. The advantages of outsourcing such as scalability of operations, adaptability, and the ability to focus on business processes rather than manage technology infrastructure and staffing issues is likely to increase outsourcing.

This Frost & Sullivan research service offers trends by countries serviced in Asia Pacific. It also includes trends in contact center outsourcing, and in-house contact centers and provides vertical analysis and trends by contact center seats and labor trends in Asia Pacific. In addition, this study also identifies destinations inside Asia Pacific, which are ideal for setting up new contact centers.

The Trend of Offshoring within Asia Pacific Boosts Contact Center Markets

"Due to aggressive competition, companies need to cut costs to enjoy higher margins and this has served as a primary driver for the phenomenon of offshoring and outsourcing in Asia Pacific," according to the analyst of this study. "Asia Pacific always had the advantage of a lower cost structure compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, however, there is a growing trend of offshoring between countries in Asia Pacific that is expected to quicken the pace of these markets."

In Asia Pacific, the markets of Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Australia are huge and do not offer any significant labor cost advantages when compared to countries such as India and the Philippines. The former countries comprise the bulk of the domestic seats in this region. The latter markets, where offshoring and offshore outsourcing have driven the growth, have low penetration of domestic seats and market participants are expecting increased demand from these major domestic seats during the forecast period (2005-2011).

Healthy Growth in Asia Pacific Contact Center Markets due to Increasing Demand for Customer Service and Phenomena of Offshore Outsourcing

Contact centers have assumed higher responsibility in enterprises, as customer service becomes a key differentiator to choose products and services. The focus in the contact center outsourcing space is shifting toward quality rather than cost-effectiveness. Although cost is still the top reason for companies to offshore and outsource in this region, it is the quality of service offered that will make any country the leader in the contact centers space. The contact center markets are expected to have a secure future through consistent demand from outside Asia Pacific and increasing in-house demand for the high-quality and low-cost solutions offered to enterprises by outsourcing contact centers.

"As the Asia Pacific contact center markets mature, customer expectations are on the rise and improving service levels and managing customer expectations has become a top challenge," notes the analyst of this research service. "India and the Philippines are battling this hurdle by providing value-added services, and using sophisticated technology to deliver excellent results consistently to their clients and thus improving their chances of becoming the leaders in the contact centers markets."