The UK's first research unit dedicated to helping the business process outsourcing and contact centre industry meet the demands of an increasingly competitive market is being established in the Highlands of Scotland.

The Centre for Business Process Outsourcing, in Alness, Easter Ross, is a £900,000 strategic project involving the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) network, CCA (the professional body for customer contact) industry representatives and the University of Strathclyde.

Since the early 1990s HIE and its local enterprise company network have successfully grown a contact centre industry that now provides around 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs. In addition to the customer support tasks traditionally associated with contact centres, many provide a wide range of business process outsourcing services, handling a variety of back-office functions for a diverse list of clients.

Operators in Scotland and the UK face increasingly fierce competition from developing economies such as India and China, where labour costs are significantly lower. Against this backdrop, the aim of the new centre will be to stimulate the growth of the UK industry.

The centre will seek to drive innovation through access to world class expertise and leading-edge thinking in a broad range of management sciences. It will also seek to discover fundamental insights required to enhance both the value of service and quality of employment offered by the industry. Research findings from the work of the centre will be made commercially available.

The choice of Alness as the base for the centre gives researchers access to contact centres employing more than 1,000 people within a 20 mile radius. The centre will comprise two researchers, one based in Alness and the other in Glasgow, employed by CCA and supported by senior academics from the University's of Strathclyde's Management Science department and Design, Manufacturing and Enterprise Management department.

Researchers will spend significant periods of time based at centres operated by industry sponsors of the project.

Initially, the key tasks of the researchers will be to establish a process of continuous road-mapping of the development needs of the industry and emergence of new knowledge in this field. This will determine the focus of research programmes designed to deliver specific solutions to meet the needs of the industry.

The centre will also deliver technology transfer programmes such as short courses and structured education programmes leading to a formal qualification.

Gordon Cox, chief executive of Ross and Cromarty Enterprise, part of the HIE network, said: "It is recognised that in an increasingly competitive market, the Scottish and UK business process outsourcing and contact centre industry cannot compete on cost alone and must concentrate on adding value by becoming more innovative in service delivery.

"The intention of this important strategic project is for it to become, ultimately, a centre of excellence for the industry in Scotland and the UK and,  to help anchor this traditionally mobile industry in the Highlands and Islands." 

The University of Strathclyde is providing £390,000 "in kind" for the project, with HIE contributing £277,000, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Collaborative Training Account £160,000 and the contact centre industry £80,000.

Professor Terry Williams, of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Management Science, said: "This investment, combined with the multi-disciplinary team from the University of Strathclyde, represents a great opportunity to give the Highlands and Islands business process outsourcing industry a firm foundation to become more efficient, move up the value chain and become world class."

Anne Marie Forsyth, chief executive of CCA said: "Although there have been several excellent pieces of work published, the industry has not benefited from a sustained and coordinated research programme such as is proposed here. CCA is delighted to be associated with the programme and will look forward to extending it beyond its present parameters for the benefit of the industry."

Fiona Larg, general manager of Vertex, one of the centre's commercial sponsors, said: "We welcome the establishment of the centre in Alness, which will help produce valuable research about this important industry.
"We recognise the importance of enhancing the customer experience at every point of contact and the centre of excellence recognises this demand for outstanding expertise and innovation in the service industry. Training is vital part in driving both efficiency and value, and by continuing to invest in our people, this can only improve our skill-set and knowledge in an ever competitive marketplace."

The UK industry will have the opportunity to find out more about the centre at the CCA's 10th annual convention in Edinburgh tomorrow (Wednesday).