Australia

World-class service delivery
Large pool of multi-cultural and multi-lingual labour
Excellent infrastructure (telecoms), including lowest long-distance call cost in the world
Self-regulatory industry standards
Acceptable English accent for US and UK
Competitive wage structures
Favourable exchange rate against US$
Regional hub of Asia
Time zones unsuitable for Europe
Labour costs are not as low as other areas such as India
Removed from main continents

Ireland

Large, well-educated, multilingual, IT-skilled, young labour force
Northern Ireland’s labour cost is estimated to be 36% lower than that of the UK
Dual-feed fibre connections
Strong IT network and infrastructure
Well-developed telecommunications infrastructure with good network connection available from an increasing number of suppliers
Excellent transport infrastructure and easy access
High level of staff turnover
CC jobs are viewed as “work experience” rather than career opportunities
No longer much cheaper than other destinations

Malaysia

Low costs, especially for infrastructure
High levels of global integration
Government promotion of IT and services sector
Small population, so unable to match scale advantages of other locations, e.g. India and China

United States

Home-grown operations
Understand American customer base
Secure environment
Stable economy
Easy access across all states
Slow economy has given access to educated resources that would otherwise have been employed elsewhere e.g. nurses, help-desk workers etc.
Hugely expensive labour force
Saturated labour force in CC industry
Dollar-based operations
Current slow economy
Costly CC in large metros
Threat of international terrorism requires redundancy plans to be put in place

UAE, e.g. Dubai

100% exemption from taxes
Other business incentives, e.g. 100% ownership of business, 100% repatriation of capital and profits, no currency restrictions
Very reliable technology and communications infrastructure
Well-educated, multi-lingual population
Access to +/- 9.5 million graduates annually from neighbouring countries
Geographical proximity to Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa
Strong government support
Political instability of entire Middle Eastern region, e.g. Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait etc.

United Kingdom

Excellent spoken and written English
Proximity to other Northern Hemisphere countries, especially Commonwealth countries
UK is considered to be the “centre of the business and traveling world”
Labour relations and union regulations
Labour saturation (large portion of labour market works in CCs)
Over-supply of low-end agents
Overall European workforce is ageing

India

Largest English speaking population after the US
Young, educated and motivated workforce
Over 2,800 educational institutes, 15 million unemployed graduates
CC positions are seen as a career and a highly prestigious job
Fairly high level of work ethics
Cost-effective manpower – wages approximately 10-15% of those in the UK (Average CC wage is £120 a month)
Geographical position allows for leveraging time zone differences resulting in faster turn-around times
Potential for 24x7 services
Large presence of international technology players
Several large computer software integrators with proven track record in both software development, implementation and application areas
Many state and government incentives for outsourcing operations
CCs are a major thrust area for the Indian Government 100% tax holiday till 2010 and additional incentives by local governments
Most experienced at outsourcing Well-structured industry bodies
Political instability and threat of nuclear war with Pakistan has caused concern and a slowdown in general outsourcing
Poor infrastructure (telecoms and power)
Attempts to link US satellites have been very expensive and not really successful
Electricity infrastructure is very poor and often interrupted
Telephony system is analog and inadequate
Telecom market is not deregulated and international calls are very expensive
Complex bureaucracy and government regulations complicate business
Very heavy English accent / dialect
Customer-service culture is virtually non-existent (service is seen as a luxury and not part of everyday life in India)
Poor quality of interactions and impact on UK and US customer base
Anti-piracy and confidentiality laws are not strictly enforced
Business culture and government intervention is very different from western business
Lack of CC experience
CC staff attrition rate of 35- 40%
Dwindling resources due to the rapid growth of the industry
Staff attrition rates increasing because of greater job opportunities and higher wages
Increasing salaries Caribbean and Latin

Americas (CALA), e.g. Brazil, Chile, Panama and Mexico

Most of these countries claim that they can support US customers with the same service as US CCs at a cost of 25%-65% less
Low wages and loyal workforce
Can leverage the Spanish speaking labour force to service the US’ large and growing Hispanic population
Fairly easy access from the US (Mexico)
Free trade zones
Fairly high literacy rate among urbanites
Panama: Excellent telecom infrastructure, available office space, excellent schools, bilingualism and strong banking sector. Spanish and English CC
Mexico: easy access from US, bilingual (close to borders)
Puerto Rico: 12% jobless, aggressively seeking bilingual CC Slightly lower costs than the US, secure island and part of the US Chile: excellent labour relations, high quality voice / data connections, stable and affluent country, government support for BPO / CC industry
Argentina: strong sales culture, educated labour force
South America is no longer “near-shore” to US Accent and political differences between South American countries e.g. “Chileans won’t talk to Argentineans and vice-versa” exist
Fairly high CC agent turnover
Power facilities, telecom networks and property costs are not always favourable
Cross-border Telco costs are high
High cost of connectivity.
Training and development of CC staff an issue