Central and Eastern Europe: Chasing New Opportunities (Market Focus)

• Comprehensive forecast for domestic and offshore outsourced agent positions in Central and Eastern Europe through 2010.
• An overview of the factors that could limit the outsourcing to this market over the long term.
• Actionable strategic recommendations for outsourcers on how to profit from this market over the long term.

• Learn about the current size of the Central and Eastern European outsourced contact center market.
• Comprehend the challenges facing CEE's contact center outsourcing.
• Identify new strategies for competing in the CEE's outsourced marketplace.

DATAMONITOR VIEW

CATALYST

This theme, the Emerging Offshore Markets, provides the in-depth analysis that investors need to be aware of including various factors 'on the ground' in each of these countries, in addition to trends affecting onshore demand.

SUMMARY

METHODOLOGY

ANALYSIS

Contact center outsourcing in Central & Eastern Europe is projected to grow through 2010

Central and Eastern Europe domestic outsourced industry growth trends

Central and Eastern Europe offshore outsourced industry growth trends

Why Central & Eastern Europe is a logical location for Western European customer service

Conformity to EU standards provides a degree of certainty and stability for potential investors

Eastern and Central Europe is only within two hours away by plane from major cities in Western Europe

The levels of mobile telephony and internet penetration are relatively high in CEE

CEE is a prime location in which to find agents with first-rate linguistic skills in Western European tongues

However, outsourcing to the CEE could prove limited over the long-term

Central and Eastern Europe investors need to be wary of a reduced agent workforce over the coming years

Shrinking subsidies in many of the EU accession countries

CEE's outsourced agent's rate is somewhat more expensive than other offshore locations

ACTIONS

Step one: situate only the high- end customer care in CEE

Step two: focus on domestic markets because of increasing wealth in these countries

Step three: examine the possibility of buying smaller regional players

Step four: examine the possibility of looking eastward to service Russian customers

APPENDIX

Further reading

Ask the analyst

List of Tables

Table 1: CEE outsourced APs (000s), 2005-2010

Table 2: Demand for CEE's outsourced offshore APs, 2005-2010.

Table 3: Travel times from London, Paris and Berlin to selected outsourcing destinations

Table 4: CEE information and communication technology penetration

Table 5: CEE labour market (2005 est.)

Table 6: CEE linguistic capabilities - 3 most widely known languages

Table 7: CEE outsourced APs (000s), 2005-2010

Table 8: Corporate tax and inflation rates in CEE (2005 est.)

List of Figures

Figure 1: CEE outsourced APs (000s), 2005 - 2010

Figure 2: Corporate tax rates, 2005

Figure 3: Outsourced agent pricing, 2005