The global pricing guide to offshore outsourcing, a new report released today by London-based independent market analyst Datamonitor compares the risks and rewards of the 10 major offshore and nearshore contact centre outsourcing locations. The report reveals that Argentina, India and the Philippines are among the least expensive locations to do business. For example, voice-based contact centre agents in Argentina and India make just 12 per cent and 10 per cent what American and UK voice-based customer care agents are paid per hour.

The report gives the average price of an outsourced agent performing the following tasks: outbound collections, direct response queries, outbound telemarketing, multi-media customer care, technical support calls and inbound voice-based customer care calling and the average wage of a voice-based customer care agent in offshore and nearshore markets.

Says Datamonitor's call centre analyst, Mark Best, who conducted the study, "As low-cost nations other than India aggressively pursue a portion of offshore-outsourcing, outsourcers and end users must not lose sight of hidden costs and other risks in locations around the globe. Besides complicating the decision to move customer care services offshore, they could potentially prove costly."

Highlights of the report:

• In Datamonitor's view, Poland, which joined the EU in May 2004, has a core of the highest quality agents in Europe for calling out of Germany and Austria
• The UK and the United States account for the largest proportion of outsourced business in South Africa. The Netherlands accounts for the smallest
• Canada is currently the most expensive offshore / nearshore location in the world but it is also the most stable and secure
• Jamaica, which competes with Canada as a lower-cost nearshore outsourcing location, is one of the most expensive offshore / nearshore locations. It is also one of the most stable and secure
• Despite wage inflation, increasing attrition and negative press about offshore outsourcing, Datamonitor expects offshore outsourcing to continue unmolested
• Mexico is the most expensive nearshore location for bilingual English/Spanish calling. It is also one of the most stable
• Datamonitor predicts that some offshore markets will experience wage inflation
• Overcapacity, partially due to offshore outsourcing, and commoditization of the market will result in wage deflation in Germany, the UK and US

Mark Best concludes, "Although outsourcers and end-users need to consider the risks of moving call center operations overseas, and more importantly, the benefits of a particular workforce, Datamonitor is confident that offshore outsourcing will continue unabated because of labour arbitrage."