By: Sachin Aggarwal
The
Next Wave: Multilingual Call Centers
Call
centers catering to the English speaking audience have been around for a while. While the market
for English Call centers is growing, the next wave of multilingual call center outsourcing is
arriving from key non-English-speaking markets like Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Netherlands and
Italy.
The
need for multilingual call centers
With
the expansion of the European Union with countries like Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia joining the IT
revolution and many like Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey anticipated to join by 2007, there is a
growing demand for pan-European call centers which will operate not just in English but in many
languages notably German, French as well as Spanish, Scandinavian and East European languages. In
the US too, with more people speaking different languages especially Spanish, there is a demand for
bilingual and multilingual call centers to cater to this segment of the population.
The
Next Wave
According
to Gartner, while the overall BPO market is expected to grow to $173 billion by 2007, a bulk of
this growth will come from Western Europe rather than North America. The European BPO market alone
is expected to grow to $65 billion in 2005.
A
recent report in the Financial Express stated that a number of German and French companies are
seeking multilingual call center outsourcing, for both voice and non-voice based services. The
report estimates that the French and German market could potentially grow to between 5% and 7% of
the English speaking market.
Outsourcing
multilingual call centers to India
Indian
companies have begun to recognize the potential for multilingual call center outsourcing. HCL is
setting up a call center in Ireland for a pan European population and Bangalore based Msource has
set up a Spanish language call center in Tijuana ( Mexico). HTMT has announced plans to set up a
call center in Mauritius to take advantage of the French speaking population there. Companies like
ICICI OneSource, Progeon, Daksh eServices and Tecnovate now offer some services in French and
German while iGate offers services in Japanese, Mandarin, Italian and some South East Asian
languages.
Promoting
non english call center outsourcing in India
One
problem that India may face is the availability of non- English speakers. In India, though students
often study foreign languages like Spanish, French and German, not many can speak such foreign
languages fluently. In a note prepared by the HRD Ministry in association with the Indian BPO
industry, there is a realization for a need to impart non-English language skills. With the
increasing demand, such courses may soon be offered by Indian Educational Institutions. Tamil Nadu
(a state in Southern India) has already indicated that it intends to create an enabling environment
for teaching of languages other than English. Karnataka (another state in Southern India) has
indicated in its IT policy that it will take measures to promote non-English businesses in the
state.
Another
unique solution is slowly emerging. With the growing awareness about India, there are a lot of
young people abroad, who would like to spend time in India and would like to take up a job while
they are here. They are providing a ready stream of agents for bilingual and multilingual call
centers.
Given
the cost benefits, the non-English market is seeking out Indian companies as potential vendors.
With the Indian government taking initiatives to teach non-English skills, it is only matter of
time, before India becomes a major player in the bilingual and multilingual call center outsourcing
segment.
Article source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sachin_Aggarwal
