The Best Contact Center Outsourcing: The 2022 CRM Industry Leader Awards
The Market
Among analyst firms, there are great discrepancies when it comes to the size and value of the global contact center outsourcing market. On the high side, MarketResearch.com estimated the total market at $249 billion in 2021, with projections for 2022 at $270.8 billion and for 2027 at $416.1 billion. On the lower end, Verified Market Research valued the contact center outsourcing market at $81.4 billion this year and expects it to reach $132.8 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 5.6 percent.
Regardless, it’s clear the contact center outsourcing market is on an upward trajectory and will only continue to grow as companies look to cut costs amid the current economic climate. The main benefit of outsourcing is that it removes the cost burdens associated with office space, equipment, and personnel.
Analysts also agree the market will see the most growth in Asia and the Pacific, both in terms of providing customer support to Asian companies as well as in the number of outsourced operations located there.
Among industries, the technology, telecom, and financial services sectors are and will continue to be the largest users of outsourcing, but analysts are also seeing strong growth among retail and e-commerce companies.
Analyst firms also agree that the vendor landscape itself is shrinking.
The market is concentrated among a few established players. Vendors are adopting the merger and acquisition strategy and entering into partnerships with other players to expand their product portfolios, enter emerging markets, and boost their market share.
The Top Five
Alorica employs more than 100,000 people in 16 countries, serving hundreds of clients in more than 30 languages. The company, based in Irvine, Calif., continues to be transformational, expanding its Alorica Anywhere work-from-home (WFH) platform into a full suite of work optimization options with enhanced security and privacy. The company in April introduced Connection Hubs, a network of operational sites designed to complement Alorica Anywhere while scaling talent acquisition and support in target markets. These hubs offer WFH employees a centralized location to connect with colleagues for recruiting, training, IT support, engagement activities, and more.
CSS has been growing at more than 25 percent for the past few years, mostly fueled by what analysts call an innovative business engagement model. John Ragsdale, vice president and research director at the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), says CSS “is always ahead of the curve,” pointing out it supplements its staff of 11,500 people across 20 global locations with “impressive automation, leveraging robotic process automation and artificial intelligence.” Analysts also liked the India-based company’s recent acquisition of Directly’s OnDemand business unit, including its next-gen GigCX services platform backed by a flexible network of freelance product experts across more than 60 countries.
Sitel Group, already a large and industry-leading contact center outsourcer, in 2021 acquired Sykes Enterprises for $2.2 billion and Majorel for an undisclosed amount. These moves created a company with more than 240,000 employees across 55 countries, speaking more than 70 languages and supporting more than 1,000 customers across all major verticals. But more than that, the acquisition presented a fantastic opportunity for Sitel, which is based in Miami, to enhance its products within the Enterprise Experience Platform (EXP+). EXP+, launched in late 2020, offers integrated and vertical-specific solutions for performance management, chat, email, voice-based contact center solutions, digital transformation, automation, data-driven insights, and CX consulting.
Acquisitions also bolstered Teleperformance, already the largest outsourcer in the world. In December, the Paris-based company acquired Senture, giving it a stronger position in the government and healthcare sectors. The company employs close to 350,000 people in 80 countries and supports billions of customer connections every year in more than 265 languages and 170 markets.
TTEC Holdings, a customer experience experience technology and services provider based in Colorado, already a powerful force in the outsourcing market, acquired the smart city assets of Faneuil from ALJ Regional Holdings, expanding its presence in the public sector. The company currently has an employee base of about 62,000 people working on six continents.