In 2002, the worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) applications market actually shrunk 25% from 2001, according to research from Datamonitor. In addition, major vendors like Siebel and Oracle suffered precipitous declines in license revenues. The report predicts that by the end of 2005, the market will have barely recovered to 2001 levels. Growth opportunities for operational CRM (oCRM) exist in Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA). Datamonitor predicts they will have average growth rates of 20% and 14% respectively compared to just 4% in North America. (Datamonitor, 2/4/2003.)

Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) projects the speech recognition market to increase to $897.8 million in 2003, up from $677 million in 2002. Over the longer term, the speech recognition market is forecasted to grow to $5.3 billion by 2008. (ABI, 2/11/2003.)

ARC estimates the 2001 worldwide CRM market size at more than $6.7 billion. The largest software supplier to the sector is Siebel Systems, with 2001 revenues in excess of $2.05 billion. Also in the market, but behind Siebel, are SAP, Oracle, Amdocs, E.piphany, i2, Onyx and Portal. ARC forecasts the worldwide sales of CRM software and related services to incrase to $10.4 billion by 2006, a CAGR or 9.1% (ARC Advisory Group, 2002.)

Worldwide CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 29%
• SAP: 17%
• Oracle: 13%

North America CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 30%
• Oracle: 13%
• SAP: 9%

EMEA CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 29%
• SAP: 25%
• Oracle: 11%

Asia CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 26%
• SAP: 21%
• Oracle: 20%

Latin America CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• SAP: 42%
• Siebel: 17%
• Oracle: 11%

(ARC Advisory Group, 2002.)

Datamonitor predicts the global market for call center component technologies -- ACDs, CTI, IVR, predictive dialing and call recording - is primed for growth, particularly in regions such as India and Central and Latin America where offshore outsourcing is already developing strongly. Of these technologies, they expect call recording to be the fastest growing over the next five years. North America will see a revenue growth rate of 3.8%; the North American market for call center component technologies will reach $3.2 billion by 2007, up from $2.7 billion in 2002. The European call center component market will see annual growth rate of 8.5%; the market is expected to reach revenues of $1.5 billion by 2007. (Datamonitor, 1/2003.)

Frost & Sullivan, in a report entitled North American Outsourced Contact Center Services Market, says that revenues in this industry totaled $22.00 billion in 2002, and are projected to reach $25.72 billion by 2009. (Frost & Sullivan, 1/2003.)

Call center systems will make up nearly 30% of the VoIP system market by 2003. (IDC, 3/2002.)

Most call centers granted raises of 4.4% in 2001; for 2002, pay increase budgets have been set slightly lower, at around 4.1% to 4.2%. Three-quarters of centers responding to a survey reported using shift differentials for employees working second or third shifts. The average hourly differential is $.83 for second shift, $.99 for third shift, $1.23 for weekend second shift, $1.43 for weekend third shift. Turnover among entry-level reps was reported at 73%, and among team/group managers it was 78%. The highest rates of turnover were found in centers described as "outbound with selling" (187% turnover per year), followed by inbound/outbound centers (97%). The lowest levels of turnover were found in centers focused on full account management (25%), Internet (31%) and credit/collections (33%). (William Mercer Inc., 2001 Call Center Compensation Survey).

The size of the service automation software market, worth $2.32 billion in 2001, will grow to reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2006. Western Europe and Asia Pacific are expected to reach $1.2 billion and $337 million respectively, trailing North America, which leads the industry with an anticipated worth of $2.8 billion by 2006. (Datamonitor, 2/5/2002.)

1,000 call center job seekers were polled to determine what they disliked most about their most recent job. The leading responses were a lack of promotional opportunities (26.4%) and a feeling of being unfairly paid for the work they perform (24.2%). Other sources of job dissatisfaction include employees feeling they are not recognized for their hard work (20.4%), employees feeling bored and unchallenged by their job (17.8%), and employees feeling they have not received enough training to perform their job well (11.2%). (CallCenterCareers.com, 1/2002.)

Speech interaction reduces the time of a banking call by 35% compared to a touchtone call, according to a benchmark study on bank call centers by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University. The Purdue study on banking call centers also states that agent-assisted calls in banking cost almost $4 per call compared to 45 cents per call for automated speech recognition. Agent-assisted calls can last almost five minutes, have an abandon rate of almost 6% and an average hold time of about 37 seconds. (Purdue University, 12/2001.)

The CRM market is predicted to grow from a $20 billion market in 2001 to a $50 billion market in 2003. But, 70% of CRM projects "fail to live up to expectations." (Meta Group, 12/2001.)

Research suggests that the worldwide market for telephony speech processing software might grow to over $3.5 billion by 2005. This represents a 2001-2005 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.1%. Automatic speech recognition (ASR), one of three core speech technologies, will account for 96.2% of the total 2005 revenue. The conversion of text into speech (TTS), another speech technology, will account for 3.1% of total revenue in 2005, while voice recognition (VR) will account for only 0.7%. (IDC, "Worldwide Telephony Speech Processing Software Market Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005," 12/2001.)

The availability of support centers seems to be increasing. A survey showed that 60% of respondents currently provide round the clock support for customers. Of those who are providing extended hours support, 85% are staffing this time with internal staff. Only 5% indicate they outsource extends hours support. (Supportindustry.com, 12/2001.)

Online service is getting worse. Of 250 automotive, business-to-business, financial, health, music, packaged-goods, retail, and travel Web sites Jupiter surveyed between Nov. 23 and Dec. 10, 2001, only 30% responded to and resolved customer inquiries within the six-hour window in which a majority of shoppers say they expect a reply. Although 90% of shoppers say they'd be satisfied with a response within two days, one-third of the 75 retailers surveyed couldn't respond that quickly. The overall response rates--even among non-retail sites--slipped 10% from a survey conducted in August 2001. 90% of the sites have phone-routing software for handling customer calls, but only 43% have email automation technology. (Jupiter Media Metrix, 1/2002).

In 2002, the worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) applications market actually shrunk 25% from 2001, according to research from Datamonitor. In addition, major vendors like Siebel and Oracle suffered precipitous declines in license revenues. The report predicts that by the end of 2005, the market will have barely recovered to 2001 levels. Growth opportunities for operational CRM (oCRM) exist in Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA). Datamonitor predicts they will have average growth rates of 20% and 14% respectively compared to just 4% in North America. (Datamonitor, 2/4/2003.)

Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) projects the speech recognition market to increase to $897.8 million in 2003, up from $677 million in 2002. Over the longer term, the speech recognition market is forecasted to grow to $5.3 billion by 2008. (ABI, 2/11/2003.)

ARC estimates the 2001 worldwide CRM market size at more than $6.7 billion. The largest software supplier to the sector is Siebel Systems, with 2001 revenues in excess of $2.05 billion. Also in the market, but behind Siebel, are SAP, Oracle, Amdocs, E.piphany, i2, Onyx and Portal. ARC forecasts the worldwide sales of CRM software and related services to incrase to $10.4 billion by 2006, a CAGR or 9.1% (ARC Advisory Group, 2002.)

Worldwide CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 29%
• SAP: 17%
• Oracle: 13%

North America CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 30%
• Oracle: 13%
• SAP: 9%

EMEA CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 29%
• SAP: 25%
• Oracle: 11%

Asia CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• Siebel: 26%
• SAP: 21%
• Oracle: 20%

Latin America CRM Software & Services Market
Leaders & Market Shares:

• SAP: 42%
• Siebel: 17%
• Oracle: 11%

(ARC Advisory Group, 2002.)

Datamonitor predicts the global market for call center component technologies -- ACDs, CTI, IVR, predictive dialing and call recording - is primed for growth, particularly in regions such as India and Central and Latin America where offshore outsourcing is already developing strongly. Of these technologies, they expect call recording to be the fastest growing over the next five years. North America will see a revenue growth rate of 3.8%; the North American market for call center component technologies will reach $3.2 billion by 2007, up from $2.7 billion in 2002. The European call center component market will see annual growth rate of 8.5%; the market is expected to reach revenues of $1.5 billion by 2007. (Datamonitor, 1/2003.)

Frost & Sullivan, in a report entitled North American Outsourced Contact Center Services Market, says that revenues in this industry totaled $22.00 billion in 2002, and are projected to reach $25.72 billion by 2009. (Frost & Sullivan, 1/2003.)

Call center systems will make up nearly 30% of the VoIP system market by 2003. (IDC, 3/2002.)

Most call centers granted raises of 4.4% in 2001; for 2002, pay increase budgets have been set slightly lower, at around 4.1% to 4.2%. Three-quarters of centers responding to a survey reported using shift differentials for employees working second or third shifts. The average hourly differential is $.83 for second shift, $.99 for third shift, $1.23 for weekend second shift, $1.43 for weekend third shift. Turnover among entry-level reps was reported at 73%, and among team/group managers it was 78%. The highest rates of turnover were found in centers described as "outbound with selling" (187% turnover per year), followed by inbound/outbound centers (97%). The lowest levels of turnover were found in centers focused on full account management (25%), Internet (31%) and credit/collections (33%). (William Mercer Inc., 2001 Call Center Compensation Survey).

The size of the service automation software market, worth $2.32 billion in 2001, will grow to reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2006. Western Europe and Asia Pacific are expected to reach $1.2 billion and $337 million respectively, trailing North America, which leads the industry with an anticipated worth of $2.8 billion by 2006. (Datamonitor, 2/5/2002.)

1,000 call center job seekers were polled to determine what they disliked most about their most recent job. The leading responses were a lack of promotional opportunities (26.4%) and a feeling of being unfairly paid for the work they perform (24.2%). Other sources of job dissatisfaction include employees feeling they are not recognized for their hard work (20.4%), employees feeling bored and unchallenged by their job (17.8%), and employees feeling they have not received enough training to perform their job well (11.2%). (CallCenterCareers.com, 1/2002.)

Speech interaction reduces the time of a banking call by 35% compared to a touchtone call, according to a benchmark study on bank call centers by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University. The Purdue study on banking call centers also states that agent-assisted calls in banking cost almost $4 per call compared to 45 cents per call for automated speech recognition. Agent-assisted calls can last almost five minutes, have an abandon rate of almost 6% and an average hold time of about 37 seconds. (Purdue University, 12/2001.)

The CRM market is predicted to grow from a $20 billion market in 2001 to a $50 billion market in 2003. But, 70% of CRM projects "fail to live up to expectations." (Meta Group, 12/2001.)

Research suggests that the worldwide market for telephony speech processing software might grow to over $3.5 billion by 2005. This represents a 2001-2005 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.1%. Automatic speech recognition (ASR), one of three core speech technologies, will account for 96.2% of the total 2005 revenue. The conversion of text into speech (TTS), another speech technology, will account for 3.1% of total revenue in 2005, while voice recognition (VR) will account for only 0.7%. (IDC, "Worldwide Telephony Speech Processing Software Market Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005," 12/2001.)

The availability of support centers seems to be increasing. A survey showed that 60% of respondents currently provide round the clock support for customers. Of those who are providing extended hours support, 85% are staffing this time with internal staff. Only 5% indicate they outsource extends hours support. (Supportindustry.com, 12/2001.)

Online service is getting worse. Of 250 automotive, business-to-business, financial, health, music, packaged-goods, retail, and travel Web sites Jupiter surveyed between Nov. 23 and Dec. 10, 2001, only 30% responded to and resolved customer inquiries within the six-hour window in which a majority of shoppers say they expect a reply. Although 90% of shoppers say they'd be satisfied with a response within two days, one-third of the 75 retailers surveyed couldn't respond that quickly. The overall response rates--even among non-retail sites--slipped 10% from a survey conducted in August 2001. 90% of the sites have phone-routing software for handling customer calls, but only 43% have email automation technology. (Jupiter Media Metrix, 1/2002).