Event Overview

Where industry strategy is formulated and discussed, policy is influenced, partnerships are formed and business is done.

There has been a real resurgence of CRM and a newfound faith in what a CRM strategy can do for all businesses. Industry leaders have moved into the SME and mid-market space, offering fantastic customer relationship management solutions for any sized business.

It was reported by Dow Jones that companies lose about 50% of their customer base every five years, generally because the company’s relationship with the customer is not developed past the initial stage of contact.  Organisations now accept that CRM can help to develop better relationships with customers, longer term.  Customer retention is key.  By using CRM in a committed way organisations really can make their customers feel like Number 1!

The call centre industry has also grown, with organisations recognising call centres as a convenient and cost-effective tool for them to keep contact with their customers.   Call centres are under pressure to reduce costs and this has them searching for technologies to help them automate and reduce their labour cost. 

This has seen a growth in customer self-service channels and increased investment in technologies such as Web Self Service and Automatic Speech Recognition.

Other technologies being readily adopted by both contact centres and enterprises are Voice over IP, IVR and CTI.  CRM technology has grown in call centres too with over 56% of all call centres across the Asia Pacific planning to have CRM technology in place by the end of 2004! 

The potential

Customer Contact is the most significant, tangible and ongoing investment that major corporations will make in IT infrastructure.  Yet contact centres, CRM, sales, marketing and other enterprise technologies – their dynamics and necessity - are not always well understood by senior management.  Customer Contact World offers the industry an event that presents a strategic dimension to this essential topic.

Customer Contact World incorporating Voice World 2005 is the director level conference and exhibition that tackles all the strategic issues, from brand integrity through to outsourcing.  And it is held in Sydney.

The growth

Businesses continue to embrace contact centre, CRM and enterprise technology solutions with the aim of making their customers’ Number 1:  

• The contact centre industry is still Australia’s fastest growing sector, with a current growth rate of 20% per annum.  The market is worth approximately AU$9.8 billion.  The industry currently employs 220,000 people.   (Source: ATA)
• ACA Research 2003 Call Centre Industry Benchmarking Study reports on an  8% growth in call centre seats
• 71% of centres indicate that they intend to grow in 2004, 40-45% of centres expect to increase their head count (Source: Vivaz)
• Meta Group predicts a 10-12 % growth in CRM services in Australia in 2004 and a 20% growth next year (2005)
• IDC predicts that CRM spending on software and services will grow from A$422 million in 2002 to A$582 million in 2007
• Latest research from Aberdeen Group predicts that the CRM market will grow to reach US$17.7 billion (AU$26.6 billion) by 2006.  (Source: Aberdeen Group)
• Business Intelligence and Sales Automation e-business solutions are high on companies spending priorities.  A joint survey from Line56 Media and A.T. Kearney of 524 executives shows that more than half are increasing their e-business spending over the next 12 months. Average spending increase will be 4-5 per cent. Mike Gorsage with A.T. Kearney says that companies are using analytics to tell them how to make their e-tools effective.