Studie - The Recession in Vertical Perspective: North American and European Contact Centers (Strategic Focus)

Introduction

This report examines the market for contact center technologies in North American and European countries. It delves into major verticals and penetration opportunities in each country. Additionally, the report defines key technologies and presents a higher-level view of enterprise trends and drivers.

Scope

*Overall enterprise goals have trended towards customer retention and cost-cutting;

*Despite the economy, enterprises continue to invest in workforce optimization technologies, customer relationship management, and speech analytics;

*From a higher-level perspective, the top three verticals are financial services, communications, and outsourcing;

*Investments in travel and transportation remains strong; healthcare and public sector are up-and-coming verticals.

Highlights

In the face of a global recession, enterprises are forced to cut costs and to consider with greater care the technology investments they ultimately make. The difficulty lies in deciding how to cope with a tightening budget without reducing the quality of customer service.

The most-changed trend in contact center demands within financial services is a growing interest in optimizing pre-existing infrastructure technology and assets. In fact, this is where most of the activity within financial services currently occurs.

The biggest problem in pushing CRM (or PRM) solutions into the healthcare industry might be a widespread culture that's generally resistant to change. Most hospitals, for instance, have their own IT systems and are not willing to train on a new one. Additionally, medical personnel are not always willing to either learn or adapt to a new system.

Reasons to Purchase

*Gain an in-depth, vertical-by-vertical view of contact center trends and drivers in North American and Europe

*Learn about the effect of the recession on contact center technologies

*Learn about the different vendors of contact center technologies

Overview 1

Catalyst 1

Summary 1

Key Messages 2

The economic recession has changed enterprise priorities 2

Government regulations drive investment in contact center technologies 2

Investments in home agents and outsourced agents require connections to back-office data 2

Finance and communication firms will continue to invest in contact center technologies 2

Healthcare and travel and tourism have large potential for growth 3

Vendors are increasingly offering more verticalized packages 3

Offering multimodal options is a strong differentiator 3

Table of Contents 4

Table of figures 5

Table of tables 5

Market Opportunity 6

Definitions 6

Contact center infrastructure 6

Customer relationship management 6

Workforce optimization technologies 7

Market trends and evolving customer interactions 9

Enterprises seek to do more with less 9

Customer retention is a top enterprise priority 10

Demand for analytics in competitive verticals is increasing 11

Enterprises are sweating assets 12

Drivers for contact center investment in a global recession 12

Customer retention is a primary consideration for contact center technology investments 12

Cost reduction initiatives increase demand for WOTs 12

Risk mitigation drives investment in WOTs and speech analytics 13

Government regulations drive investments in contact center CRM and WOTs 13

Increased number of home agents and outsourced agents require linkage with back-office data 14

Hurdles for contact center technology vendors in the economy 15

Enterprises are cautious of taking risks on unproven technologies 15

Global outlook 15

Conclusion 17

Country-Level Specifics 18

North America: US 19

Financial services 20

Communications 22

Outsourcing 23

Travel and tourism 23

Public sector 24

Healthcare 25

Energy and utilities 25

North America: Canada 26

Public sector 27

Healthcare 28

Outsourcing 28

Communications/financial services 29

Europe: UK 29

Financial services 30

Communications 31

Travel and tourism 31

Healthcare 32

Utilities 32

Public sector 32

Europe: France 33

Financial services 34

Retail 34

Technology 35

Europe: Germany 35

Financial services 37

Communications 37

Manufacturing 37

Europe: Italy 38

Financial services 39

Manufacturing 40

Travel and tourism 40

Public sector 40

Europe: Spain 41

Financial services 42

Utilities 42

Europe: Russia 43

Financial services 45

Communications 45

Europe: Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) 45

Financial services 47

Communications 47

Competitive Landscape In North America and Europe 48

Contact center infrastructure 48

Alcatel-Lucent/Genesys 48

Aspect (contact center infrastructure and WOTs) 49

Avaya 49

Cisco (contact center infrastructure and WOTs) 50

Convergys 50

CosmoCom 50

SAP (contact center infrastructure and CRM) 51

Siemens (contact center infrastructure and CRM) 51

CRM 51

Microsoft 51

Motorola 52

Oracle 52

Salesforce.com 52

SugarCRM 53

Systems Integrators 53

BT 53

WOTs 54

NICE 54

Verint 54

Go to Market 55

Future trends 55

Emphasis on customer self-service 55

Tighter integration with unified communications 55

Focus on multiple channels and integration into customer portals 55

Predictive analytics for early-adopter verticals 55

Proliferation of web-based training 56

Longer-term trends 56

Expansion of product portfolios through acquisitions or re-branding 56

Integration into social networking 56

Recommendations 57

Take a modular approach to target mid-market and specific verticals 57

Expand business consulting capabilities 58

Maintain a wide range of deployment models 58

Invest in web-based training 58

Deploy a multimodal strategy for dealing with mobile consumers 60

APPENDIX 61

Definitions 61

Methodology 62

Further reading 62

Ask the analyst 62

Datamonitor consulting 62

Disclaimer 63

List of Tables

Table 1: US APs (000s) 2007-13 20

Table 2: Canadian APs (000s) 2007-13 26

Table 3: UK APs (000s) 2007-13 29

Table 4: French APs (000s) 2007-13 34

Table 5: German APs (000s) 2007-13 36

Table 6: Italian APs (000s) 2007-13 39

Table 7: Spanish APs (000s) 2007-13 42

Table 8: Russian APs (000s) 2007-13 43

Table 9: CEE APs (000s) 2007-13 46

Table 10: Per-course training prices in developed contact center markets ($) 60

List of Figures

Figure 1: WOTs components and value 8

Figure 2: Current investments in contact center technology 10

Figure 3: Contact center spending over the next 12-24 months 11

Figure 4: IT budgets and spending priorities, next 12 and 24 months 16

Figure 5: Country volatility and AP growth 18

Figure 6: US AP vertical splits 19

Figure 7: US APs 2007-13 19

Figure 8: Canadian AP vertical splits 26

Figure 9: Canadian APs 2007-13 27

Figure 10: UK AP vertical splits 29

Figure 11: UK APs 2007-13 30

Figure 12: French AP vertical splits 33

Figure 13: French APs 2007-13 33

Figure 14: German AP vertical splits 35

Figure 15: German APs 2007-13 36

Figure 16: Italian AP vertical splits 38

Figure 17: Italian APs 2007-13 38

Figure 18: Spanish AP vertical splits 41

Figure 19: Spanish APs 2007-13 41

Figure 20: Russian AP vertical splits 43

Figure 21: Russian APs 2007-13 44

Figure 22: CEE AP vertical splits 45

Figure 23: CEE APs 2007-13 46

Figure 24: Training prices in major contact center markets 59

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