Argentine Call Center BPO Report Issued

Zagada Markets, Inc. has announcing the publication of its "Argentina Executive Call Center Report 2007: Heart of Innovation and Care."

This short executive report format is characterized as "the first of four concise reports in its South American series," which will also cover Brazil, Mexico and Chile in short order.

The report claims to offer "strategic guidance and detailed decision-making cost estimates and economic handlers to corporate buyers, vendors, investors and executives about how to compare and evaluate Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario for site selection and investment."

The report focuses on comparing these three cities for contact center activity.

While Argentina offers a full range of IT and back office delivery, the activity in its call center voice-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service is "a growth opportunity," the report authors think.

The study indicates that "the land of the tango is dancing to the tune of impressive agent growth and increased foreign direct investment flows in the sector." The country is on track to have 33,000 agents by the end of 2006, reaching a projected 41,920 by the end of 2007, reflecting a 31 percent annual growth rate.

There is centralization, understandable in a nascent industry: Fully eighty-five percent of the market’s 40 contact centers are situated in the cities of Cordoba and Buenos Aires, with Rosario a distant third. 60 percent of agents serve international clients, with the U.S. generating most of its operators revenues followed by Spain and France.

The main interest in America, of course, is finding outsource locations to serve the expanding Hispanic American market, which now exceeds 43 million. Currently most of that is served by Mexican vendors, Argentina's hoping it can be seen as a preferable alternative.

And of course, as wonderful as everything else looks, the great caveat companies have in doing business in Argentina is the economic and political instability the country -- region -- seems prone to. Here's where Zagada cheerleads a bit, saying "Despite the renationalization of some industries, (utility), labor cost increases, upward inflationary trends and a rise in the pesos to a 3 to 1 exchange rate to the U.S. dollar, the report finds that additional factors supporting the growth of the Argentina call center market include, its 130,000 plus annual computer science and engineering graduates, extensive bilingual programs, competitive telecommunication rates and extensive coverage in key urban centers."

On the one hand the fact that Zagada mentions such issues is to their credit, on the other we'd need to see the report to know how they deal with them.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

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