Recession not hurting IP telephony adoption

The uptake of VoIP systems at call centres is increasing

The international call centre market is enthusiastically adopting voice over IP (VoIP) despite other cuts in spending due to the recession.

A survey of call centres in 36 countries found that, while some are cutting back on implementing customer relationship management systems, the uptake of VoIP is actually increasing.

Leading the way is Africa, surprisingly, where 75 per cent of call centres use VoIP systems. In Britain the take-up rate is 60 per cent and in the US only half of centres use VoIP, according to the annual Dimension Data Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report.

"Traditionally, contact centres were seen as cost centres and the primary business focus was on decreasing costs through consolidating and rationalising processes, functions and activities," said Howard Spink, Dimension Data's UK director for customer interactive solutions.

"Our report suggests that we are on the cusp of a contact centre evolution driven in part by the tough economic conditions of today. Within three to four years, we expect that most contact centres will become a key source of value creation for businesses."

The survey showed some surprising results about the UK. Fewer than one per cent of UK customer contacts were made via email, the lowest in the world, despite figures showing that emails are generally answered faster than calls.

The British are also living up to their reputation for queuing. UK callers are willing to wait 66.8 seconds for a call to be answered, compared to 45 seconds in Africa and the Middle East and just 34 seconds in Asia.