Sitel once again bagged the top slot in the category: Best Performing Contact Center. Interestingly, this year’s top 10 list of global contact centers has many surprises, including ACS making to the third slot from last year’s nowhere position, NCO Group jumping to fourth position from the last year’s 10th slot, Convergys entering into the category for the first time and making to the second position.

The winner of the category, Sitel needs no introduction as a contact center leader. The three things that make it stand out are: a) Global Sourcing — which is about its flexibility in how it sources the most appropriate talent and skills from across the globe and is also about its ability to leverage expertise and knowledge from across the globe; b) Global Operating Standards — which is about using 32 years of experience supporting 3 million customer interactions a day to deliver consistent service every day; c) Global Private Network — which is about ensuring uninterrupted service to customers by using Multi Protocol Label Switching-Internet Protocol backbone to route voice and data seamlessly throughout its 140+ global facilities.

On its capabilities to serve efficiently, one of Sitel’s customers Joann, Director Strategic Alliances, Pitney Bowes cites, “Although Sitel is a large global company, they have demonstrated that they value Pitney Bowes as a client. From the beginning of the partnership when Pitney Bowes launched with approximately 35 agent positions in two global locations, Sitel provided the appropriate level of operational support and access into Sitel’s senior management organization. I think Sitel’s ability to meet customers at their level is one of the reasons Pitney Bowes and Sitel have been so successful together — small and then medium.”

Many such deals continue to get signed. For example, in Feb. ‘09, Sitel inked a multiyear, approximately $40 million, outsourcing deal with a new client to provide inbound customer care and other customer-service activities. The company has already employed approximately 400+ associates for this project.

However, market conditions have impacted Sitel as well. “The second half of 2008 saw more significant impact due to the economic downturn in terms of both an opportunity and a challenge. The positive impact has materialized as large new outsourcing initiatives that have been typically associated with consolidations, asset reallocations and re-badged employees. Due to this, we expect to see several new companies join our roster of clients in 2009. The down side impact is realized primarily through the erosion of forecasted volumes. Our volume decreases are a direct reflection of dampening in new customer sales, activations, reservations, claims, product releases and account opens,” said David Garner, CEO, Sitel.

To serve buyers facing the challenging economic conditions, Sitel has developed special service offerings, including a packaged offering targeted at low balance collections — this solution is optimized to profitably collect early in the process using a unique blend of interactive voice, live agents and non-agent assisted collections strategies.

Will the current slowdown continue to affect Sitel in 2009? “Sitel is bullish about the future. We believe we will be a significant part of our customer’s successful navigation of the current economic environment and their emergence from this turmoil. As additional industries and companies see the benefits of our expertise, stability and proven results, we expect we will have several new client case examples that point to the benefits of outsourcing to capitalize captive contact-center assets, migrating resources from captive payrolls and consolidating volumes to top performing outsourced partners,” stated Garner.

As an optimist Garner also said that “As businesses evolve in complexity with the number of services they offer, the future of the contact center will continue to evolve and grow in its importance as a key strategic asset. We have already seen an enlightenment in businesses moving from pure cost center to profit centers as more then half of all Sitel’s customers have one or more metrics that measure revenue generation impacts. Sitel’s position as the primary point of contact with the customer will act as a catalyst to drive adoption and mitigate risk associated with market changes and new product launches. With this shift of focus from pure efficiency management to customer management, Sitel’s mission will evolve from merely answering customers’ questions to educating customers on the broader range of capabilities a company has to offer.”