Outsourced Home Agents: Virtual Contact Center Hype Gets Reality Check (Strategic Focus)

Introduction

The use of home agents by contact center outsourcing vendors has increased rapidly in the last few years. Datamonitor examines whether the model has the potential to become widely adopted.

Scope

*This report examines the rise of the use of home agents in the contact center outsourcing industry, on a global basis.

*It includes estimates on the number of home agents deployed, and a forecast of the growth of this market to 2012

Highlights

While the growth of the home agent market has been slow due to a fixation on labor arbitrage, home agent growth will continues to outstrip that of the contact center outsourcing market.

While there are significant cost benefits of using home agents, the savings cannot compete with its fellow remote model offshore outsourcing. In a survey of vendors, cost savings was seen as only the sixth most important benefit, while improved quality and flexibility came out on top.

Reasons to Purchase

*Gives an independent assessment of the potential of the home agent market, cutting through some of the hype that has been generated in media

*Provides results from a survey of outsourcing vendors that provide home agent services

*Contains an estimate of the size and growth of the home agent market


Report Highlights

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Overview 1
Catalyst 1
Summary 1
Key Messages 2
Home agent growth will outstrip facilities-based contact center outsourcing market growth 2
Home agent growth has been slower than expected due to fixation on labor arbitrage 2
The main benefits of home agent delivery are quality and flexibility not cost savings 2
Home Agents is not a one-size fits all solution 2
Security is the number one challenge for home agent vendors 2
Table of Contents 3
Table of figures 4
Table of tables 4
MARKET OPPORTUNITY 5
Immaturity leaves enormous room for growth 5
Limited appeal outside US 6
Potential to take a significant part of US market... 7
...but will not become the dominant delivery model 7
Disappointing growth in last two years 8
False start for some vendors 10
Changes that have led to increased viability of home agent programs 10
Telecommunications 10
Tech savvy public 11
Rise of flexible working 11
War for talent 11
Remote delivery acceptance 12
Client demand 12
Benefits of using outsourced home agents 12
1st - Provides customer with higher quality of service 13
2nd - Ability to recruit better quality of employees 13
3rd - Allows greater flexibility for dealing with variation in customer demand 14
4th - Allows better retention of staff 14
5th - Easier to scale workforce 14
6th - Lower overall cost 14
=7th - Lower absenteeism 14
=7th - No real estate required 15
9th - Resilient service in face of external disruption 15
10th - Empowers employees 15
11th - Environmental benefits 15
12th - Allows client to keep work onshore 15
Challenges in using outsourced home agents 16
1st - Ensuring security is not breached (data protection/fraud) 16
2nd - Training and coaching home agents remotely 18
3rd - Technology issues (including call quality) 18
=4th - Minimizing home environment distractions 18
=4th - Fostering collaboration / team ethic 19
6th - Cost of compliance 19
7th - Remote monitoring / management of staff 19
8th - Recruiting appropriate candidates for home agent work 19
Services provided by home agents 19
Verticals supported by home agents 20
Cost savings using a home agent model 21
'Hub and spoke' versus 'fully remote' model 22
Hub and spoke 22
Benefits 22
Challenges 22
Fully remote 23
Benefits 23
Challenges 23
Payroll versus Contractor Model 23
Payroll model 23
Benefits 23
Challenges 23
Contractor model 24
Benefits 24
Challenges 24
Competitive Landscape 25
Contact center outsourcing companies with major home agent programs 25
West Corporation 25
Convergys 25
Teletech 25
Sitel 25
Stream Global Services 26
Sykes 26
Teleperformance 26
Pure-play home agent vendors 26
Alpine Access 26
Arise 26
Live Ops 27
Working Solutions 27
Go to Market 28
Recommendations 28
Vendors should not market home agent delivery as labor arbitrage 28
Hub and spoke approach cannot deliver full benefits of home agent delivery 28
Pure-play home agents will thrive in some sectors, but will not threaten major contact center companies 28
Investment in collaboration and communication tools 29
APPENDIX 30
Methodology 30
Further reading 30
Ask the analyst 30
Datamonitor consulting 30
Disclaimer 30
List of Tables
Table 1: Contact center outsourcing market model and forecast (2007- 2013) 5
Table 2: Outsourced home agents worldwide (2009-2012) 6
Table 3: Ranking of benefits in deploying home agents 13
Table 4: Ranking of challenges in deploying a home agent 16
List of Figures
Figure 1: Contact center outsourcing market model and forecast (2007- 2013) 5
Figure 2: Outsourced home agent positions worldwide (2009-2012) 6
Figure 3: Survey of end users on criteria for choosing contact center outsourcer 9
Figure 4: Has your company considered using outsourced home agents as an alterative to offshoring? 10
Figure 5: Broadband penetration in US households 2006-2014 11
Figure 6: Which party is the main driver for the take up of home agents? 12
Figure 7: Ownership of hardware used by outsourced home agents 17
Figure 8: Estimated split of home agents by service 20
Figure 9: Estimated breakdown of home agents by vertical market 21
Figure 10: Cost savings on home agent versus facilities-based agent 21

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List of Tables
Table 1: Contact center outsourcing market model and forecast (2007- 2013) 5
Table 2: Outsourced home agents worldwide (2009-2012) 6
Table 3: Ranking of benefits in deploying home agents 13
Table 4: Ranking of challenges in deploying a home agent 16

List of Figures
Figure 1: Contact center outsourcing market model and forecast (2007- 2013) 5
Figure 2: Outsourced home agent positions worldwide (2009-2012) 6
Figure 3: Survey of end users on criteria for choosing contact center outsourcer 9
Figure 4: Has your company considered using outsourced home agents as an alterative to offshoring? 10
Figure 5: Broadband penetration in US households 2006-2014 11
Figure 6: Which party is the main driver for the take up of home agents? 12
Figure 7: Ownership of hardware used by outsourced home agents 17
Figure 8: Estimated split of home agents by service 20
Figure 9: Estimated breakdown of home agents by vertical market 21
Figure 10: Cost savings on home agent versus facilities-based agent 21
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