The Middle East Contact Centre Outsourcing Conference (MECCO) will offer delegates in-depth understanding of key outsourcing concepts, how to prepare a business case, select an ideal partner, manage the partner and develop the relationship further. The aim is to equip delegates with the knowledge and insights that they can use to help their organisations enter into successful outsourcing partnerships.
According to Dominick Keenaghan, president of INSIGHTS, the Middle East market is seeing the entry of many new Outsourcing Service Providers (OSPs) at present. Some of these are ‘local’ companies who are being driven by an opportunity and can’t really claim a large degree of market experience to date, whilst others are regional offices of overseas operations that have certainly delivered creditable solutions in other parts of the world, but are currently lacking in regional experience. In both cases, organisations need to proceed with care due to the need to make Outsourcing agreements in the region as flexible as possible. “In addition,” continued Keenaghan, “many regional organisations currently think that Outsourcing is solely about saving money.”
While saving is often a primary benefit, according to Keenaghan, research indicates that a large number of such contracts ultimately fail when short term cost savings are the sole driver of the relationship.
“The more successful relationships and the ones that endure are where a company lacks a particular competency that the Outsourcer can provide, e.g outbound sales skills,” pointed out Keenaghan. “In these cases the outsourcer provides unique value in the arrangement and both parties benefit.”
He added, “Contracts that are solely cost driven often mean that the outsourcer doesn’t necessarily recruit staff of a sufficiently high calibre and tends to run the operation by “the numbers”. Invariably as these numbers run up against normal human tendencies, this results in a stressful working environment, and subsequently high agent absence and attrition rates. None of this benefits the client’s customers and the conclusion by many is that whatever is being saved through outsourcing is being more than lost through a combination of constant rehiring/staff training and, probably more importantly, through customer defections and brand destruction.”
About MECC 2012
The MECC ‘12 show is organized by INSIGHTS, and is widely recognized as the premier call centre event for the region. The 2012 version takes place June 5 – 6 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC). MECC ’12 offers the region’s top call centre professionals a unique, expert-led forum to get up-to-date with the industry’s latest trends and developments, discuss common issues, test-drive new technology and re-invigorate their current development plans.
MECC ’12 also features the region’s leading call centre exhibition where many new products, services and companies are launched, and the annual Middle East Call Centre Awards Dinner to honour outstanding performance and results by the region’s top performers. Networking, quality and inspiration are bywords for the MECC experience, one that is clearly appreciated by the large number of repeat attendees from one year to the next.
About INSIGHTS
INSIGHTS is the only Call Centre dedicated, Professional Services Organisation in the Middle East region to offer a combination of regional experience (15 years serving the regional industry), industry journals (spearheaded by “Telephony Middle East” magazine and the Customer Middle East portal), international accreditation with recognised global industry bodies (G-CEM, CIAC, etc.), accredited and certified Call Centre training programs (English & Arabic), the region’s only dedicated Call Centre Conferences and Exhibitions and is the developer of the Call Centre Lifecycle Development System.
For further details contact Dominick Keenaghan on +971-4-3329211 (mobile 050-6595406) or email insights@emirates.net.ae. Web site is www.insights-me.com
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