Regional Contact Centre industry to determine strategic direction this week

Dominick Keenaghan, President of Conference organiser, INSIGHTS, commented "The Contact Centre industry in the Middle East boasts many unique attributes including advanced technology, average size of centre, multilingualism and its own local culture and customers. As a consequence there is a limited extent to which it can compare itself to other parts of the world, and in fact a grave danger to just copying what others do elsewhere. The Middle East needs to build centres that are designed around the requirements of customers in this part of the world."

Keenaghan added, "At CCW 2003, Conference delegates, representing the kingpins of the Middle East's contact centre profession, will be presented with "state-of-play" reports including contemporary regional research, current best practice, and expected growth and development projections. A full analysis of the area's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will be discussed and, with the assistance of leading international experts such as the Contact Centre Doctor, Brownell O'Connor, and CRM specialist Dr. Ivan Roche, delegates will aim to formulate a strategic plan for both their own contact centre situations and the industry as a whole."

Adding to the variety and depth of the event, a number of the region's leading companies are acting as sponsors and displaying their state-of-the-art solutions and services outside of the conference sessions. Key CCW 2003 sponsor, the Etisalat Contact Centre will be demonstrating how their call handling outsourcing services can deliver attractive returns on investment in areas such as overflow call handling, inbound/outbound sales and automated hosting, whilst the fast growing BUZZ Contact Centre will highlight how they are helping regional organisations to cost-effectively meet ever-growing customer service and transaction processing needs. In particular, BUZZ will demonstrate how their state-of-the-art communications system supports the BUZZ operation and allows clients to enjoy comprehensive campaign reporting and on-the-fly adjustment/tuning as calling volumes dictate.

UAE-based Synovate, a CCW 2003 event customer satisfaction measurement sponsor, is taking advantage of the concentration of contact centre professionals at CCW 2003 to launch the popular VewsCast system. Viewcast is a proven method to collect customer feedback both by phone and over the web for immediate consolidation and analysis, and is an example of some of the automated self-service strategies being discussed at the event. Also on the technology front, Dubai Internet City-based Altitude Software will demonstrate communications solutions that facilitate consistent customer interactions over multiple customer access channels such as voice, IVR, email, SMS, fax and web collaboration.

The "soft skills" element of any successful contact centre is receiving special attention at CCW 2003 and a host of consultancy and management development options will be on display for conference delegates. These include consultancy and training services and solutions from new UAE start-up, The TeleServices Company, all of whose services are available in Arabic and English, and the comprehensive range of contact centre certification programs offered by the Call Centre Industry Advisory Council.

As an additional event bonus, conference delegates are being treated to a site visit to the Etisalat Contact Centre in Ajman. This 480 agent-seat facility has been custom-designed to match regional requirements and CCW 2003 delegates will get the chance to meet with customer service representatives and listen to live enquiry and assistance calls from various customers.

The Contact Centre World 2003 (CCW 2003) event takes place from October 12 - 15 at the newly opened Shangri-La hotel in Dubai.