EMEA Outbound Dialing Systems Markets

Debt Collections and Focus on Pro-active Customer Contact Drive EMEA Outbound Dialer Systems Market Despite Economic Downturn

During the first half of 2008, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) outbound dialing systems markets were growing at about 8 percent. However, the meltdown that followed led to extended purchase decisions and the consequent slowing down of projects. By the fourth quarter of 2008, most enterprises were already trimming expenditure; freezing discretionary spending, including that of outbound dialer systems. While the economic downturn slowed the overall sales of outbound dialing systems, it has spurred sales for collections uses. Long-term support for pro-active contact strategies, which are expected to be adopted by companies of all sizes and industries, will become an important driver for outbound dialer systems and other outbound customer contact applications. "Laws enacted to protect consumers from aggressive debt collectors are encouraging debt collection organizations to fine tune their processes and refine the outbound systems and applications," notes the analyst of this research service. "Maximizing the effectiveness of each contact has become critical."

Leading companies are discovering the strategic business value of comprehensive approaches to pro-active customer contact (PCC). They are leveraging customer and product information from across the enterprise to reach out to their customers with personalized service messages and sales offers to cement and grow profitable relationships. Pro-active contact is expected to become a leading driver for outbound dialer system sales in the near future.

Misconception Surrounding Revenue-only Aspect of Outbound Dialing Deters Market Progression

Telemarketing calls are perceived as annoying and invasive. This has led to the creation of the Do Not Call legislation in many countries across EMEA and governments and agencies are implementing stringent restrictive laws. These laws, including the EU Data Protection Directive, are proliferating and being strengthened. The growing tangle of confusing and complicated legal restrictions and penalties, and the public's dislike for unsolicited calls are making it difficult for telemarketers to successfully run their campaigns. Further, the mission of most contact centers is customer service, not revenue generation. These customer service-focused centers are typically operated as cost centers. The perception that outbound dialing is only useful for revenue generation has kept it from being more widely used in primarily inbound/customer service-focused centers. Vendors must ramp up efforts to educate consumers on the business values of outbound dialing for customer service.

Manufacturers can consider building ease of use into their dialing applications and this must include ease of configuration, installation and intuitive system interfaces for managing outbound campaigns by non-IT professionals. Outsourcers and service providers require multi-tenant, robust, easily configurable, and high availability systems. Incorporating service provider appropriate functionality and providing a complete suite of pro-active application functionality will provide the much needed competitive advantage.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

By Geographic Region:

• The United Kingdom
• Germany
• France
• Spain
• Portugal
• Italy
• Benelux (comprising Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands)
• Scandinavia (comprising Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden)
• Eastern Europe (comprising Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia)
• Rest-of-Europe (comprising Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, and Switzerland)
• Middle East and Africa (comprising Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia, and UAE)