SYDNEY, Australia, 21 December 2006—Aspect Software, Inc., the world’s largest company solely focused on the contact centre, has released the Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index™ for the third quarter of 2006, which found that contact centres in Australia anticipate spending AU$385 million on human resources and technology in the fourth quarter of this year. Factoring in the anticipated spend for each prior quarter in 2006 as determined by the study, Aspect estimates that Australian contact centres should wind up spending AU$1.9 billion on human resources and technology by the end of the year.
“This considerable investment in the hiring of agents into Australian contact centres and the continued spend on upgrading and implementing new contact centre technologies is evidence that this industry in 2006 is in a period of renewed growth,” said Dr. Catriona Wallace, director of ACA Research, a leading independent market research consultancy that worked with Aspect to develop the Aspect Software Index. “We estimate that the contact centre industry has grown in size, as measured by employees and seats, by 8 percent since 2005.”
“In addition to the economic growth they have experienced,” continued Dr. Wallace, “contact centres in Australia are very close to growing into a global category of “achievers” as classified by the Index according to a set of customer service, human resources, revenue, operations and technology-based indicators. As ‘reasonable performers’ in the third quarter, they were only two points away from the higher classification. Considering all of this, we think the industry is headed in a positive direction as 2006 ends.”
The Aspect Australian Contact Centre Index Score for Third Quarter of 2006:
The overall score for the contact centre industry in the third quarter of 2006 on the Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index was 69 on a scale of 100, which reflects an increase of two points from the second quarter and is equivalent to a grade of “reasonable performance” as defined by the Aspect Software Index. A score of 100 would be “best-in-class”; 86 to 99 would categorize Australian contact centres among the “leaders” of the industry globally; 71-85 would categorize them among the “achievers”; 57 to 70 among the “reasonable performers”; 43 to 56 among the “vulnerables”; 29-24 among the “laggards”; and 18 to 28 among the “endangered.”
Technology was a statistically significant driver of overall contact centre performance in the third quarter, according to Dr. Wallace’s analysis of the study’s results.
“Contact centres are looking at how staffing and performance optimisation technologies can help them maximize their human resources in Australia’s tight labour market, where it’s very challenging to secure and retain qualified personnel,” said Michael Woodham, country manager of Australia and New Zealand for Aspect Software. “By automating the handling of routine, high-volume, low-value transactions, contact centres can free up agents to deal with higher-value interactions that would benefit from their sophisticated skills. An increase in performance and customer and agent satisfaction from this could help push Australian contact centres up into the categories defined by the Index as those of ‘achievers’ and ‘leaders.’”
Other Key Findings of the Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index:
• In the third quarter of 2006, approximately AU$5.6 billion was generated in contact centres with 20 or more seats, an increase from AU$4.2 billion in the second quarter.
• 35 percent of contact centres anticipate increasing full-time headcount, and 31 percent anticipate increasing part-time headcount in the fourth quarter of 2006. Approximately 12,452 agents (7,222 full-time and 5,230 part-time) will be recruited.
• 43 percent of contact centres agree that they do not have the necessary technology in place to fulfil the requirements of their businesses.
• At least one in three respondents considers ACD, CRM and reporting/analytical software to be the most useful technologies.
• In the areas of Customer Service, Human Resources and Revenue, performances were stronger in the third quarter of 2006 than in the second quarter. There was a slight decline in Operations performance from the second to the third quarter, resulting from an increase in operating costs driven by an upward pressure on agent wages.
• In the areas of Human Resources, Revenue and Operations, performances were stronger in the third quarter of 2006 than they were in the third quarter of 2005. Customer Service performance declined in the third quarter of 2006 compared to the same quarter last year.
The overall results of this study, according to Dr. Wallace, suggest that the most important underpinning factors affecting how contact centres perform are customer satisfaction, agent satisfaction and enabling technology. Top-performing contact centres are focused on training, coaching and developing the skills of their agents, offering flexible work conditions and generating revenue through increased sales and marketing activities and new product or service offerings.
About the Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index
Produced in cooperation with ACA Research, a leading independent market research consultancy, the Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index assesses the performance of more than 100 Australian contact centres of 20 seats or more across a set of customer service, human resources, revenue, operations and technology-based indicators in a variety of industry sectors, including finance, telecommunications, government, outsourcing, professional services, manufacturing and retail.
The quarterly study provides Australian contact centre industry executives with a standard benchmark for tracking performance against competitors and other contact centres, as well as information for justifying investments and driving future growth initiatives.
About Aspect Software
Aspect Software, Inc., founded the contact centre industry and is now the world’s largest company solely focused on Internet Protocol (IP) and traditional voice-based products and services for customer service, collections, and sales and telemarketing business processes. Each day, Aspect Software powers more than 125 million customer-company interactions at thousands of in-house and outsourced contact centres around the globe. Its trusted Signature product line offers automatic call distributors (ACDs), diallers, voice portals and computer telephony integration (CTI). The company’s leading Contact Center Performance Optimization product line provides workforce management, quality management, performance management and interaction optimization applications. And, its pioneering Unified IP Contact Center product line delivers a comprehensive, multichannel solution. Headquartered in Westford, Mass., Aspect Software has operations across the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.
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Aspect, Aspect Software and Aspect Software Australian Contact Centre Index are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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