The contact center outsourcing services market in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean experienced significantly higher growth than the Latin American market as a whole in 2013. It will continue to witness strong expansion as Mexican contact center outsourcing service providers generate revenues from domestic business and their Central American and Caribbean counterparts focus on nearshoring to the US.
New analysis from Frost&Sullivan, Mexico and Central America and the Caribbean Contact Center Outsourcing Services Markets, finds that these markets earned $3.02 billion in 2013 and estimates this to reach $5.07 billion in 2020. While the telecom industry is the main vertical availing contact center outsourcing services in Central America and the Caribbean, banking, financial services, and insurance are the key industries driving the demand in Mexico.
"The Central American and Caribbean markets are well-positioned to provide high-end contact center outsourcing services to the US due to their cultural affinity with the country and the availability of a qualified workforce with a neutral accent," said Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies industry analyst Sebastian Menutti, in a statement. "Mexico, on the other hand, is well-equipped for nearshoring activities due to the adequate supply of human resources who can speak both Spanish and English."
The Central American and Caribbean contact center outsourcing services markets are also gaining pace due to the existence of free-trade zones that offer exemptions from sales taxes, equipment import taxes, and exporting fees to providers who generate a minimum percentage of their revenue from exports.
However, the saturation of the labor markets in the main cities of countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Dominican Republic coupled with the high attrition and absenteeism rates of employees in big cities is confining the expansion plans of some major participants in the region. To overcome these challenges, contact center outsourcing service providers need to set up additional centers in new locations that have the requisite manpower.
Additionally, Mexican contact center outsourcing service providers are also improving their profitability by diversifying their portfolios to include back-office and non-voice business process outsourcing services such as data recovery, financial services, and logistics.
"Central American and Caribbean contact center outsourcing service providers are boosting revenues by distributing traffic depending on the competitive advantage each country possesses," Menutti said. "Accordingly, transactional traffic is placed in low-cost locations, back-office activities are conducted in cost-effective destinations with a high standard of education, and traditional voice services for US clients are provided from key cities in Latin America."