Glasgow's two recent large projects seem to fit the trends cited by Tony Davies, director, product marketing and management applications EMEA, for Avaya, a business communications firm and contact center service provider. Davies works with contact centers across 56 countries and 13 time zones.
      "Companies that have transactions that tend to be complex or protracted are finding that U.K. natives are better at dealing with those, or at least give the customer a better experience than in the Far East," Davies says. "Companies that have high-volume, relatively simple transactions tend to be more inclined to move offshore where there is little interaction with the agent."
      The growth in Europe continues to push eastward where some countries are benefiting from Western European offshoring."There's been quite phenomenal growth in some of the former communist bloc countries, particularly for small call centers."
      Davies believes Russia may set the pace in new contact center development over the next five years, both in terms of centers and positions. This is coming despite the fact that Russia is not adapting IP phone systems as rapidly as other countries.
      "They (Russia) tend to be buying traditional circuit-based technology," he says. "The reason, we have concluded, is the combination of a fear of failure due to lack of skills and [the fact that] they are taking a conservative approach."
      Davies reports "phenomenal" growth in Poland with mostly smaller centers. The industry is also expanding in Turkey and Spain. The Nordic region is also growing, but on a smaller scale, he says.
      But Davies also reports one country in the West with surprising growth.
      "Like the U.K., the Netherlands is a fairly mature market, but the recent growth there has been rather exciting and to tell the truth, I'm not exactly sure why. There's been a lot of small and mid-size contact centers opening in the Netherlands."
      But many companies in the West are turning to offshoring. Davies says some of this is occurring both within EMEA and outside of the region.
      "Eastern European countries are handling some call center activity for Germany," Davies says. "Some of the French-speaking countries in North Africa are also starting to handle centers for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. South Africa has not seen the same level of growth, but there is a clear trend. That's one of the offshoring areas from the U.K. because they speak English. They also speak Afrikaans, a flavor of Dutch."
      The U.K. contact center business has a number of interesting stories, Davies says.
      "One company tried India and the level of customer service wasn't what was expected, so they brought the business back to the U.K. Some companies are employing home workers using IP technology to keep costs down. This is happening in Northeast England with companies using mothers at home with small kids.