Asia-Pacific Remains the Fastest Growing Region for Contact Center Services, Finds Frost & Sullivan

- Upswing in domestic markets to propel next phase of growth

SINGAPORE, June 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The year 2012 was a good one for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) contact center market with contact center seats growing by 8.4 percent – relatively higher than in other regions. A strongly performing domestic contact center outsourcing industry represents the next stage of growth in the region and is poised to keep the market buoyant.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.contactcenter.frost.com), Assessment of Asia Pacific Contact Center Markets CY 2012, finds that the markets had over 3.7 million agents employed in 2012 and is expected to employ over 6 million agents in 2019.

APAC will continue to experience the highest growth in the global contact center outsourcing industry, driven by booming domestic markets that are bolstered by increasing demand from the telecommunications and banking and finance (BFS) sectors.

"Historically, offshore revenue has been the key driver of the Asia-Pacific contact center market, and in 2012 contributed 39.6 percent of the total market. Cost savings, a large and relatively low cost labor pool, strong infrastructure, language proficiency and experience of serving western world customers make many Asia-Pacific locations preferred offshore destinations for contact center outsourcing for American and European companies," noted Frost & Sullivan Research Manager Krishna Baidya. "A growing focus on quality customer service is, at the same time, resulting in domestic contact center outsourcing escalating in the region as well."

"Demand from local Asian economies is expected to have a high impact during the entire forecast period. Rural BPO is getting attention and offering a viable option to pursue, especially while serving domestic customers," Baidya elaborates further.

Customer service enhancement received greater attention in 2012. Contact centers across the region have increasingly started to leverage the available technology and new business models to gain better operational efficiency and cost advantages. Capital investments on improving agents' interpersonal skills and domain knowledge registered an increase in recognition of the fact that professionally skilled and experienced agents are valuable assets for enterprises.

"The contact center service segment, including consulting, implementation, management and agents' training services, has become important for vendors and system integrators," remarked Baidya. "More professional agents are set to be recruited and trained in the future to enhance the overall service quality of contact centers."

While being the preferred contact center outsourcing destination meant good news, some concerns – including market saturation, anti-offshoring outlook in many countries, emergence of alternative locations, increasing attrition rate resulting in swelling costs as well as concerns of quality of services – still remain.

"Traditional third-party outsourcing relationships based on cost and labor arbitrages have become passe," concluded Baidya. "Providing customer service at a lower cost simply won't win more wallet share or new customers anymore. End-to-end support and overall value proposition to customers' business will be key in nurturing customer and provider relationships going forward."

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail with your contact details to Donna Jeremiah, Corporate Communications, at djeremiah@frost.com with your full name, company name, job title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

Assessment of Asia Pacific Contact Center Markets CY 2012 is part of the Contact Centers and CRM Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research in the following markets:

1. APAC Contact Center Outsourcing
2. Contact Center Analytics in Asia-Pacific
3. Asia Pacific Contact Center Applications Market CY 2012
4. Analysis of the Asia-Pacific Hosted Contact Center Market

All research included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.

• The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.
• The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Contact Us: Start the discussion
Join Us: Join our community
Subscribe: Newsletter on "the next big thing"
Register: Gain access to visionary innovation

Assessment of Asia Pacific Contact Center Markets CY 2012
P702-76

Contact:
Donna Jeremiah
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
P: +61 (02) 8247 8927
F: +61 (02) 9252 8066
E: djeremiah@frost.com

Carrie Low
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
P: +603 6204 5910
F: +603 6201 7402
E: carrie.low@frost.com

http://www.frost.com