Kirk LaughlinUntil recently, most of the Latin Americas’ contact center outsourcing markets were considered cost-convenient for establishing offshore business. However, the overall global economic slowdown, offshore outsourcing and aggressive cost-cutting pressures demanded by clients are hitting revenue growth rates in the short-to-medium term.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (contactcenter.frost.com), Argentinean and Chilean Contact Center Outsourcing Services Markets 2010, finds that the Argentinean market earned revenues of $627.1 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1,027.7 million in 2015. The Chilean market earned revenues of $290.9 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $494.4 million in 2015.
“Issues like high inflation, rising wages, and lack of government support are damaging the competitiveness of Argentina so further expansion in offshore business is unlikely in the short term,” says Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Juan Gonzalez. “This has caused concerns regarding the market’s prospects for 2011 among the companies.”
Nevertheless, Argentina’s market revenues are expected to grow, albeit slowly, in the short term with growth rates hovering around 9.0 per cent during 2009-2015. This is possible due to skilled human resources, competitive telecommunication rates, extensive coverage in main urban areas, and modern technology.
The Chilean contact center outsourcing services market revenues decreased slightly in 2009, losing out some business to less expensive locations (especially in the telecommunications sector), such as in Peru. Even though, a majority of the companies did not follow this trend, it did not pose any threats to the future growth of local competitors that focus on domestic transactions.
The outbound services’ contribution to the total revenue has decreased in Chile. While those represented 38 percent from the total market revenue in 2008, they only accounted for 25 percent in 2009. Sales were affected due to financial crisis and many outbound services were migrated to Peru.
Nonetheless, offshore services have increased and Chile is considered as a key regional contender in the competition for offshore services to Spain. Chile was able to take advantage of its economic and political stability and legal and technological infrastructure to remain competent.
Domestic outsourcing market opportunities can be found in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BSFI) segment. This is because banks in Chile are accustomed to outsourcing telemarketing and collection services but not customer care activities, yet.
Overall, domestic and offshore contact center services will continue to grow throughout the forecast period in the Chilean and Argentinean market. Even as call volumes decrease, the unit prices (revenues per agent hour) are expected to remain stable or slightly increase.
The trend toward increased usage of self and automated service technologies such as IVR, Email management, and Web self-service will continue. This will enable outsourcers to provide more services with the same number of agents.
“The overall effect will be to increase the number of transactions handled by outsourcers, while lowering the revenue derived per transaction,” observes Gonzalez. “Due to intense competition in this region, the market is expected to stabilize by 2013, after increasing growth rates in 2011 and 2012.”
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