Sponsored by BYC Aqua Solutions, Jabra GN, Moneypenny and RSVP at Verizon Offices in Reading, Berkshire.
RSVP were kindly invited by UKCCF and IS to attend a conference for outsourcing contact centre operations in Reading at the offices of Verizon. The conference was sponsored by RSVP alongside other organisations such as BYC Aqua Solutions, Jabra GN and Moneypenny. The conference was made up of several talks by industry professionals ranging from topics on social media to political economics.
The first discussion was held by Peter Ryan, founder of Ryan Strategic Advisory on ‘The Future of Working in a Contact Centre 2020’. The discussion was accompanied by leading industry professionals including Declan Maguire from TBT, William Carson from Teleperformance and Simon Foot from Ember Services. The discussion ranged from comparing problems of modern day contact centres to those that we may face in 2020 with many varied opinions of the severity of change we may face three years down the line. Conversations were held about the on-going political status of the country and how that could affect modern day contact centres and what those affects may look like in 2020.
We then moved onto a discussion on commercial banking titled ‘Economic Outlook, Another Fine Mess!’ lead by Adam Chester, Head of Economics at Lloyds Bank. The fantastically thorough presentation involved headings such as:
- Sentiment seemingly unphased by heightened uncertainty
- Election results 2015 in comparison to results of 2017 and the changes
- Seat composition
- Weakness of productivity posing big risks
- UK productivity remains far lower than our peers
- Fiscal squeeze continues, but at a slower pace
Finally we were given an edifying summary of the presentation and main points covered throughout.
- “Global GDP growth expected to be a little firmer in 2017 at around 3.5%.”
- “Slowdown in global trade, potential disorderly correction in China, and broader impact of US policy tightening pose key risks.”
- “The UK has so far held up better than expected, although the medium and longer term outlook is now especially uncertain.”
- “Longer-term prospects will depend on how EU negotiations unfold and whether businesses postpone or cancel investment. Raising productivity is key.”
- “The fall in the pound should boost net exports, but put further upward pressure on inflation- squeezing real incomes and spending.”
- “Given the uncertainty, the pound is likely to remain susceptible to significant volatility.”
- “Interest rates on hold for now. Once the dust settles, however, interest rates may rise more quickly than the markets currently expect.”
In addition, we were addressed by Peter Ryan of Ryan Strategic Advisory on ‘The Contact Centre- Changing Times in a UK Offshore Dynamic’. He began to speak in depth on the competitive advantages that outsourcers must have available in their services to win potential business. With the presentation of a graph, it was clear that the two most important advantages are leading edge security/data protection capabilities as well as diverse social media CRM offerings.
We were also presented with a graph to indicate outsourcer UK pricing – inbound, voice based customer service (Price/Agent/Hours) USD. The UK mainland came in at second highest in this graph followed by Northern Ireland, South Africa, Philippines and lastly India. The highest country on the graph was Ireland. Peter began to speak in detail about India and its growing potential as offshore outsourcers. India was the very first offshore contact centre delivery location, therefore, as a potential business source it holds a fairly high reputation. He then pinpointed the labour scalability, the emphasis on quality across CRM value chain, English language availability, non-voice customer experience and relatively stable.
Finally, the conference was completed by an in-depth discussion on RPA (Robotic Process Automations) & AI (Artificial Intelligence) lead by Guy Clapperton from Intelligent Sourcing, Sarah Burnett from Everest Group and Andrew Burgess from AJ Burgess.
In conclusion, the exposition was an incredibly informative and interesting event for RSVP. It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss some very current issues in the contact centre world and a great opportunity to meet some fellow industry professionals and find out a little bit about leading competitors.
