Australian enterprises look to cloud contact centers and new technologies as more customers and employees move online, ISG Provider Lens™ report says
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the game for contact centers in Australia, prompting enterprises to move these operations to the cloud and accelerate investment in new technologies to better engage with online consumers, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center — Customer Experience Services report for Australia finds a growing number of enterprises in Australia are outsourcing their contact centers to service providers to meet the new challenges posed by remote work and the need for new technologies to reach customers.
“The pandemic showed Australian companies how important digital engagement is for surviving and competing in uncertain times,” said Jarrod Magill, director, ISG Global Business Services. “Cloud-based and outsourced contact centers are making them more resilient and agile.”
The sudden shift to working from home at the outset of the pandemic has become a permanent feature of contact centers in Australia, leading to continued, growing demands by employees to work anywhere and at any time, the report says. Enterprises are offering contact center workers a variety of working arrangements, particularly hybrid work modes, to attract and retain the most qualified staff. This increases the need for workforce management and engagement solutions, along with security infrastructure to protect assets and data in remote locations.
As consumer behavior changes, companies in Australia are also improving their ability to collect, combine and use customer data to generate meaningful insights in real time, ISG says. In addition to structured data, such as transaction and CRM data, companies face a quickly rising flood of unstructured data from social media, web browsing, mobile devices and other sources. They are starting to leverage AI to collate and interpret this data to better serve customers.
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“Data has become an essential tool for improving contact center experiences,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “With the latest technologies, providers can help clients develop new, revenue-generating experiences using timely and relevant data.”
These trends are occurring as contact centers take on more central roles in Australian organizations, the report says. The success or failure of businesses increasingly depends on customers having positive experiences with contact centers, making it even more important that agents have the right tools and information.
The report also examines other contact center trends in Australia, including the increasing importance of customer-facing automation and the return of many overseas contact centers to Australia.
The 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center — Customer Experience Services report for Australia evaluates the capabilities of 28 providers across three quadrants: Digital Operations, Work From Home Services and Social Media CX Services.
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The report names Concentrix, Datacom, Probe CX, TSA and Wipro as Leaders in all three quadrants. It names Sitel Group and TTEC as Leaders in two quadrants each and Acquire BPO, Tech Mahindra and Telstra as Leaders in one quadrant each.
In addition, Startek, Tech Mahindra and WNS are named as Rising Stars — companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition — in one quadrant each.
