As mergers and acquisitions take place within the contact center industry, consolidation is taking place among software companies that sell products developed for this sector.

"It"s becoming more difficult for vendors to offer just point solutions," Nigel Hewett, managing director for Witness Systems in Asia, said in an interview during a recent visit to the Philippines.

Witness Systems, which makes call monitoring (such as voice recording) and training tools, announced earlier this year its acquisition of Blue Pumpkin, another software company that makes scheduling performance management software, in a deal valued at US$75 million.

Mergers between vendors usually mean consolidation of their products. Witness Systems will integrate Blue Pumpkin"s earlier applications into its workforce optimization suite. According to Hewett, this is intended to benefit users who have a requirement for solutions offered by both companies.

"This would require less integration on their part, which then increases their efficiency," he explained. "There is also the benefit of a single road map. When solutions are included in a single offering, it"s easier for the user to upgrade. Plus it"s easier to deal with a single vendor."

Users of Witness Systems software in the Philippines include call centers Ambergris Solutions, Sykes Enterprises Inc. and Customer Contact Center Inc., as well the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) for its call center operations.

Hewett acknowledged that users have high expectations when it comes to integration of products, like the case of Witness-Blue Pumpkin. According to him, users will eventually experience increased benefits compared to using point solutions (products from various vendors); one of which is having a "unified" view of customer information generated by call centers.

Mergers also mean that vendors are trying to strengthen their market share and cover the global industry as much as possible, with strong outsourced services markets in the likes of India, Latin America, Philippines and even China.

Workforce optimization

But as the industry matures and gets ultra-competitive, call centers begin looking for solutions that would propel them ahead of the competition. This also spurs software vendors to acquire other vendors that develop new solutions which fit into their product offerings.

Now an industry buzzword, workforce optimization essentially refers to how a contact center is able to get the most value out of its workers. The term encompasses a broad field and includes a number of components like training agents down to scheduling and evaluating their performance.

Vendors have been trying to adapt to this approach as well, developing products designed to automate these functions. "The dynamics of call centers change on an hourly basis," Pushkar Taneja, regional vice-resident for Concerto Software, pointed out in a separate interview.

According to Taneja, workforce optimization solutions are meant to evaluate workers" skills sets while reducing their dissatisfaction and therefore, lessen employee turnover.

Concerto, which specializes in outbound dialing and unified call center software, announced last July its acquisition of Aspect Software, which focuses on workforce and performance management applications. The deal, expected to be completed by the end of the month, is valued at $1 billion. The new company will be named Aspect Software.

In the Philippines, Concerto"s installed base includes HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Globe Telecom.

Taneja sees strong opportunities for unified solutions that would stem from the merged Concerto-Aspect company as the call center industry in the Philippines grows even bigger.

Likewise, Hewett also sees a lot more room for growth for software companies like Witness Systems that sell workforce optimization software. "India is slightly more advanced because they have been in the business longer. But call centers in the Philippines are adopting workforce management software a lot faster than the Indians did," he said.