Contact & Shared Services
There are around 160 contact and shared service centre businesses in Wales, employing a total of more than 27,000 people.
Leading names from many different branches of industry have established such facilities here over the past 15 years.
These operations cover financial services, government, utilities, telecommunications, retail, travel and IT.
Among the blue chip players who have invested and reinvested in Welsh contact centres are: ntl, HBOS, Zurich and ING. Moreover Unilever, Tesco, Logica CMG and The Big Food Group have set up substantial shared services operations in Wales.
An increase in public sector, as well as smaller, home-grown businesses, has boosted the scale and breadth of contact and share service activity in Wales.
The largest sector - finance and IT - offers a wide range of activities including accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, payroll and IT services.
Overall growth of the sector has continued in more recent years. For example it grew by 13% between 2002 and 2004 (Source: Mitial International).
Among the factors influencing this growth are:
- High staff retention and attrition rates well below the UK average
- Highly positive feedback from employers on levels of motivation and commitment
- Availability of suitable ready-to-occupy properties at affordable rates or sites for development
- Strong local network of professional business services
- Two highly active employer fora which provide research, benchmarking, skills and recruitment support and networking opportunities www.welshcontactcentreforum.co.uk
- Increased collaboration with the academic sector on skills and research
- Strong on-going public sector support
- One of the most advanced digital telecoms infrastructures in Europe
- A highly advanced digital telecommunications network
Wales' reputation in this sector is reflected by the fact that it hosted the 2005 European Shared Services Week.
