Industry news

The virtualisation of call centres will bring many benefits

Virtualised call centres can eliminate real estate costs through remote workers, said one industry expert.

CosmoCom said that only one in every 60 call centre staff in the UK work from home, according to the online recruitment magazine.

This figure is way behind the US where IDC figures predict that there will be 330,000 remote call centre staff by 2010.

Mike Adolphy, the firm's managing director, commented that those who have virtualised had seen improvements in operational efficiency and customer service.

Adding that virtualisation means companies can grow from existing buildings, increase staff morale and productivity and "eliminate real estate costs by allowing all staff to work remotely".

Mona Sultan, of analyst group Datamonitor said she believes it is the next step in the call centre industry's evolution.

"In a few years we won't be talking about virtualised contact centres, because the practice will become mainstream and they will simply be referred to as ‘contact centres' once more," she added.

"Much in the same way that e-commerce is still, at the end of the day, just commerce but over