Executives involved in site selection decisions for contact and shared service centers servicing the European market, are facing uncertain market conditions. But the choice of suitable locations is increasing, according to "International Shared Services and Contact Centres: International Strategies & Benchmarking Study" by consulting firms Oxford Intelligence and IBM-Plant Location International. Roel Spee, Global Leader, IBM-PLI said; "In the future it is clear that there will be an ever-widening scope in location competition for both shared services but especially for contact centers." The next generation of investment locations will be in Latin America, North Africa, other CEE countries (e.g. Balkans, Baltics, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine) and additional APAC locations - China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam as well as second and third tier cities in India and the Philippines.
Execs more optimistic about short term investment In the short term, senior executives were cautiously confident about future plans, with 55 percent of shared services centers and 72 percent of contact centers with firm international investment plans through to 2010. But only 53 percent of shared services executives and 37 percent of contact center executives expressed positive investment intentions in the longer term.
28 locations across 21 different countries in Western Europe, CEE and offshore locations in India, the Far East, Africa and Latin America, were benchmarked in the study. Cities such as Amsterdam, Marseilles, Barcelona, Manchester, Berlin, Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin, Maastricht, Belfast, Leeds and Madrid are well-positioned, according to the study.
Challenging time for locations in Central and Eastern Europe "Western European locations still have a strong proposition for more complex and higher value facilities" said Michel Lemagnen, Research Director, Oxford Intelligence. Companies will continue to develop the most efficient processes in the traditional Western European centers and then to migrate or outsource non-core, lower risk and low value-added functions to lower cost solutions - be that in-house, outsourced or virtual.
For the better-established CEE locations the coming years will be challenging due to executive perceptions on overheating, salary inflation and a decline in overall efficiency. It is the newer locations that will provide the next wave of competitive CEE locations.
Asian locations have been most successful in attracting larger contact centers whilst Europe, has attracted far smaller facilities. New investments are more likely to occur in locations that have a large and sustainable workforce with the right skills and in those locations where labor laws are favorable.
