EMEA Hosted IP Contact Centre Market

Increased outsourcing of telecommunications infrastructure and services is primarily driving the hosted IP contact centre markets in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Adoption of the hosted IP telephony model in this region is on the rise as existing carriers look to enhance their portfolio of offerings and develop the new revenue stream provided by voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) traffic. Although the market is still in a formative stage and the technology is novel, the potential therein is huge: as much as 7.9 per cent of the installed base is likely to use hosted IP contact centre services in EMEA by 2009. Ultimately, hosted IP contact centre services are expected to emerge as a complementary service to premise-based telephony systems.

This Frost & Sullivan research provides a comprehensive overview of the constantly evolving hosted IP contact centre market in EMEA, focusing on major technology trends and issues related to the competitive environment. It also provides in-depth and up-to-date market size estimates and forecasts.

Hosted Service Shifts Risk from Enterprises to Service Providers

"Hosted IP contact centres shift the ownership of infrastructure from the enterprises to the service providers," remarks the analyst of this research service. "The shift of technology risk from the end user to the service provider coupled with low exit barriers for end users is helping to promote hosted IP contact centre services." Enterprises are showing more willingness to test these solutions, particularly since hosted IP telephony offers them access to converged telephony infrastructure at a lower cost.

While small enterprises have shown substantial interest in hosted contact centre services, large firms are also evaluating the value proposition of outsourcing their telecommunication requirements. These organisations appear to prefer outsourcing to a single service provider.

Hosted IP Contact Centres to Bring in New Opportunities for Carriers, SIs and VARs

The growing adoption of hosted IP contact centres has created fresh opportunities for equipment manufacturers, service providers, value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators (SIs) and application developers. "Hosted IP contact centres offer service providers a new, recurring revenue stream," notes the analyst. "The market is likely to significantly grow with increased market awareness and education, innovative service and price bundling and a robust service delivery channel."

Enterprises also benefit because of the cost efficiency they gain in terms of moves, additions and changes. Service providers are emphasising the advantages of cost reduction and productivity benefits, thereby boosting adoption of hosted IP contact centres. The emergence of integrated access service is also likely to appeal to enterprises since it enables them to try and test the offering on a need basis and on a limited scale.