Support for Debt Collection Drives the EMEA Market Demand for Outbound Dialer Systems

Sales of new as well as add-on outbound dialer (OBD) systems for use in debt collection activities has increased now after the plummet in 2009 due to tightened budgets during the economic downturn. Other leading applications for OBD systems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are telemarketing and pro-active customer contact. The United Kingdom and Germany continue to be the largest markets for OBD systems in EMEA.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, “EMEA Outbound Dialer Systems Markets,” finds that the markets earned revenues of EUR 54.8 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach EUR 90.2 million in 2016. The regional markets covered in this research service are the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia, Rest-of-Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa.

“Support for debt collections continues to be a major driver for the sales of OBD systems in EMEA,” says Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Joe Outlaw. “Proactive customer contact will emerge as the most significant long-term driver of growth for outbound customer contact solutions across regional and vertical markets in EMEA.”

Use of outbound dialer system as a single tool for pro-actively contacting customers primarily with service-related information is increasing rapidly across all industries. The largest consumers of OBD systems are the banking/financial services sector, followed by outsourcers and telecommunications companies.

However, increasingly restrictive and overlapping government regulations across EMEA are affecting the usage of OBD systems in debt collection campaigns. Other methods and the media are supplementing the use of agent-assisted outbound calling to comply with laws and reduce campaigns cost. There is a heightened demand for unified campaign management tools, which include OBD systems.

“The market for standalone OBD systems in EMEA is gradually diminishing,” notes Outlaw. “The rising need for pro-active customer contact and the increasingly restrictive government regulations are driving the demand for multi-function and unified outbound suites of applications as well as blended inbound and outbound customer contact.”

Point solutions for outbound customer contact are increasingly being viewed as less efficient when compared to multifunction and unified outbound customer contact campaigns. Demand in the EMEA markets is swiftly shifting away from point solutions to outbound contact.

“To handle the growing demand shifts for unified outbound and blended inbound/outbound functionality it is imperative for vendors of outbound solutions in EMEA to build out suites of outbound functionality and make them interoperable with the inbound customer contact applications,” concludes Outlaw. “Minimum functionality for pro-active customer contact application suites would include support for the predictive dialer, outbound IVR/voice portal applications, notifications and alerts, pro-active survey, and unified campaign management.”

EMEA Outbound Dialer Systems Markets is part of the Contact Centres Growth Partnership Services programme, which also includes research in the following markets: North American ICR Markets 2010, North American Outbound Dialer Systems Markets, North American Agent Performance Optimization Markets, and EMEA Contact Centre Outsourcing Markets. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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