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Central America Call Center Report 2007
Central America Call Center Report Published by Zagada Institute Region’s leading Research Firm New Research from Zagada Institute highlights Central America Bilingual Agent Density Serving U.S. Companies Surpasses Mexico, Argentina and Dominican Republic Miami-Coral Gables, FL. –Zagada Markets, Inc.Zagada Institute announces the publication of its Central America Call Center Report 2007: A Bilingual Niche.The report is the first complete and independent call center study conducted on Central America.The study indicates that the Central America Nearshore market’s impressive growth in its current 21,012 agent population will approach 40% annually over the next 24 months, resulting in close to 40,000 agents by the end of 2007.An estimated 95% of existing agents are bilingual and are ideally position to continue serving the customer care needs of U.S. companies focused on the expanding Hispanic American market now exceeding 43 million. “In our comparative evaluation we find that despite the large sizes of Mexico and Argentina local agent population and the impressive agent growth in the Dominican Republic, the Central America Nearshore market as an aggregate has the highest number of dedicated bilingual agents serving U.S. firms,” said Philip Dickenson Peters, co-director of Zagada Institute and CEO of Zagada Markets.Based on the levels of growth and service experience, the report categorizes the region into three growth niches: Maturing (Panama, Costa Rica), Contending (El Salvador, Guatemala) and Emerging(Nicaragua, Honduras, Honduras). The accelerated provisioning of bilingual agents across all segments of the Central America Nearshore market is attracting a combination of both U.S. multinationals and outsourcing specialist companies to the region.Firms report average savings of 35% from their regional operations as well on projects outsourced to Central American Third Party call center providers. Apart from the region’s expanding bilingual agent population, the report finds that additional factors supporting the growth of the Central America Nearshore market include, stable parliamentary democracies, competitive telecommunication rates and coverage in key urban centers, extensive bilingual programs among the region’s 174 tertiary institutes and universities, low cost and adequate physical contact center office capacity in key markets and business friendly Economic Development Agencies.The report also finds that certain markets also generate significant business from Latin American and European multinationals. The Central America Nearshore market also faces strategic and natural challenges as the market prepares for accelerated expansion.These challenges include the timely development and preparation of sufficient bilingual agents to meet growing U.S. company demand, and the need to accelerate connectivity beyond major urban centers.The importance of expanding physical contact center office capacity in its Contending and Emerging markets in anticipation of meeting the needs of U.S. and international firms expanding to the region is being addressed. As the first in-depth report on the Central America Nearshore call center market, the study delves into the details of the advantages and challenges of each of the seven markets, the political and economic factors defining each market, as well as the bilingual programs and student graduation rates delivered by each sector.Costs associated with daily agent rates, telecommunication, real estate, taxes, and travel are outlined and compared across the regional markets, and between the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Nearshore, Mexico and Argentina in the Latin American Nearshore, and India and the Philippines in the Asian market. The report’s vendor analysis underscores Avaya’s leadership in the region with Nortel, Genesys, Siemens, SER, Aspect and Cisco as vigorous competitors. The report offers strategic guidance to corporate buyers, investors and executives about how to evaluate each market, assess Third Party vendors and utilize Zagada’s SphaeroAlliance.com portal for effective Nearshore sourcing.Companies who purchase the Central America Call Center Report 2007: A Bilingual Niche by April 31st, 2006 will receive a complimentary certificate for two hours of analyst access as well as a special discount on the most recent Caribbean Call Center Report, published earlier by Zagada Institute. Parties interested in purchasing the report can send emails to reports@zagada.com, contact Zagada directly at 305 529 9028 to reach our South Florida office. Reports can also be purchased through our distributors MarketResearch.com, Mindbranch.com, Global Information Inc, and InfoEdge.com. For more information on Zagada and its Nearshore sourcing portal please go to www.zagada.com and www.sphaeroalliance.com About Zagada Institute Zagada Markets Nearshore Central American and Caribbean Call Center Agents to Top 75,000 in 2006 Zagada Finds New Research from the Zagada Institute highlights Central American emerging CallCenter Success as the Caribbean also accelerates Panama leads with 9,500 agents and an estimated 50 international and local centers, followed by Costa Rica with almost 4,500 agent positions and 11 centers. When combined with its “shared services” and IT service companies serving the international market, Costa Rica has 35 companies with just under 8,000 employed in the sector. The new report finds that despite the relatively recent focus on attracting contact centers and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to their shores, El Salvador and Guatemala are staging an impressive challenge to the front runners, with 4,000 agents and 8 centers in the former followed by 6 centers and 3,000 agents in Guatemala. Nicaragua, Honduras and Belize have a combined agent density less than 500 among their 10 centers. The Zagada Institute projects a 38% Central American growth rate over the next 12 months, attracting an additional 8,000 new agent positions by the end of 2006 to the beginning of the first quarter 2007. Central America’s projected 30,000 figure sits just below the Caribbean’s 33,000 agent count, having added around 10,000 new positions in calendar year 2005 to its 23,000 plus agent. (Zagada Institute’s Caribbean Call Center Report). The Dominican Republic has now bypassed Jamaica 10,000 agents and 16 centers to secure the Caribbean’s number one spot with almost 12,000 agents and 35 centers. Both Caribbean contact center leaders added over 4,000 and 2,000 positions over the last year. The economic effects of the Central American Dominican Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) coupled with the Caribbean Community CARICOM’s Single Market & Economy (CSME) are anticipated to further accelerate contact center service growth in both regions. From a vendor perspective Avaya shows a significant lead over its competitor Nortel Networks. Siemens and Genesys continue to score wins as they increase their market share. The report finds that Cisco’s IP solutions are gaining ground at an impressive rate and will continue to challenge existing leaders. Other companies with installations include Concerto and Davox, now unified under their Aspect brand and outbound specialist SER Solutions. The Zagada Institute anticipates an intense competitive price climate over the next 12 months as emergent players step up the challenge with lead operators. The Zagada Institute’s Central American Call Center Report 2007 finds that Central American growth is characterized by “captive” call centers, internally managed and operated by companies such as Dell, Sykes, Converges, Teleperformance, and the like who have larger centers approaching 1,000 agents. Caribbean growth, however, is principally driven through joint-venture centers as well as third party U.S. outsourced contracts. Central America’s business model is intensely focused on producing an impressive core of bilingual IT – capable graduates from its 170 plus university and colleges to meet the customer care and tech support needs of both U.S. and Latin American conglomerates. The Zagada Institute’s Central American Call Center Report 2007 is scheduled for publication on March 7th, 2006. Special pre-publication discounts are available. The most recent Caribbean Call Center Report is immediately available through Zagada and its distributors. Parties interested in purchasing the report can visit Zagada at www.zagada.com or send email enquiries to Reports@zagada.com. About Zagada Institute Zagada Markets
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