Contact Center Investments in Developed Markets (Business Trends)

Introduction

This report is the result of Datamonitor's annual survey of 150 contact center managers in North America and Western Europe. Respondents were from within the communications, financial services, retail and travel & transport industries. The report provides insight into enterprises' plans for investment in a number of key contact center switch, workstation, self-service and emerging technologies.

Scope

• Gives an overview of planned IT budget changes for 2009 and lists enterprises leading strategic objectives.
• Discusses enterprises current usage and plans for investments in a number of key contact center technologies, segmented by region and vertical.
• Analyses the criteria enterprises look for when selecting contact center and unified communications providers.
• Provides ratings for the leading providers of contact center switches, CRM, IVR, unified communications and workforce optimization technologies.

Highlights

Optimizing contact center technology is currently enterprises' top investment priority. Outbound calling is expected to become a significant priority in the US, Canada, and France over the next 24 months.

Almost half of the respondents from Europe have invested in contact center analytics. Over 1/3 of respondents plan to purchase workforce management solutions over the next two year timeframe. About 1/3 of US respondents have plans to invest in workforce management and web chat applications over the next 12-24 months.

The majority of respondents perceive a vendor's ability to offer an 'all in one' solution' as paramount in delivering advanced contact center solutions. The combination of technology and services, and best-in-class technology are also considered high on the list of priorities when selecting a vendor.

Reasons to Purchase

• The Business Trends Survey provides the latest primary research and an understanding of IT and business trends within the contact center environment.
• Understand enterprises strategic spending objectives for investments in contact center technology.
• Discover which characteristics enterprises look for when choosing a contact center or unified communications provider.