Technology & savings galore at call centre show

According to Dominick Keenaghan, President of show organizers INSIGHTS,

"the regional call centre market is very dynamic right now with many existing call centres increasing their range of customer access channels by migrating from a call centre to a contact centre. At the same time many new call centres are being set up and many Outsource Service Providers (OSPs) are appearing that offer different specializations and skill sets that growth-driven, regional enterprises can take advantage of.

This variety and energy is being reflected in the MECC 06 exhibition where visitors can not only inspect the latest technology offerings but also discuss their particular call centre requirements with subject matter experts, learn key points in the comprehensive 'Free Vendor Seminars' programme and take advantage of the numerous special show offers. All of the latter will allow enterprises to save themselves a considerable amount of investment dollars."

Heading the list of major vendors participants this year is Cisco Systems, who have also chosen to sponsor the main MECC 06 Conference. Cisco are renowned for their comprehensive range of IP Communications solutions and will use MECC to highlight their ability to improve the customer experience with integrated call centre, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), messaging and voice portal offerings.

One of the strongest themes at MECC 06 this year is the growth being seen in the Outsourcing market. Whilst international contact centre outsourcing has not really taken off in the Gulf to date, mainly due to the unavailability of competition-matching VoIP (Voice over IP) services, much outsourcing business is being generated locally as local companies become more comfortable with the concept of using a specialist 3rd party to handle non-core competences such as customer experience management, list cleaning, technical help desks, marketing campaigns, etc. Companies to the fore in this sector that are participating in MECC 06 include Etisalat Contact Centre, Cupola Teleservices and DATEL.

Another major trend to catch up on at MECC 06 is the growth of IP Telephony in the region. This topic manifests itself in may ways including migration strategies for existing PBXs, campus-wide IP-PBXs, IP Centrex, Peer to Peer Voice over IP (P2P VoIP) and multi-modal communications. A host of companies at MECC 06 such as Cisco Systems, Cosmocom, Vertical Communications, Future Technology, Scientechnic, ZRG and Avaya will be displaying their latest solutions in this fast-developing field.

Other key concepts to explore at the show include automatic speech recognition in both English and Arabic, customer relationship management and call centre workforce optimization. Key market participants showcasing solutions at MECC 06 include Emerging Technologies, Altitude Software, Witness Systems and Globitel.

The MECC 2006 event takes place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Sheikh Zayed road from Saturday January 28th till Tuesday, January 31.