Nearshoring will grow above 10% in 2021

António Freitas de Sousa 26 November 2020, 20:26

The export of services in contact centers is expected to grow above 10% in 2021 and therefore well above the national average, according to the Portuguese Association of Contact Centers (APCC).

The export of services in contact centers is expected to grow above 10% in 2021 and therefore well above the national average, according to the Portuguese Association of Contact Centers (APCC), which released the information at the end of the webinar 'O nearshoring in Contact Centers in Portugal - Current moment and future perspectives ”, which took place this Thursday.

In the online survey which was based on the conclusion and which was carried out during the webinar (with 210 participations), “52% of the participants made it known that, in 2021, the nearshoring in contact centers in Portugal will grow by more than 10% , 34% believe it will grow by less than 10% and only 14% of the respondents said that the current dimension should be maintained ”, according to a statement by the APCC. It should be remembered that nearshoring consists of having a multinational company serving customers in a given country.

This was “an opinion shared by the speakers of this online event, which represent some of the largest companies in the sector. In the opinion of Miguel Azevedo (Randstad Portugal), Ricardo Verdasca (Sitel), Ricardo Fernandes (Teleperformance), Fernando Oliveira (Transcom) and Carlos Moreira (Webhelp), if this year is already very positive, the next should be even better .

The country's attractiveness as a privileged destination for nearshoring is unquestionable: security, political and social stability, a strategic location, a qualified workforce, quality of service, competitive costs, mastery of the English language and technology are the characteristics to be highlighted.

“We were fast, flexible and we knew how to adapt”, as stressed Fernando Oliveira. An example of this was the fact that the contact center sector managed, in the space of two weeks, to put 90% of its employees to work from home.

In 2013, the turnover of the nearshoring activity was 68 million euros and was worth 22,4% of the total contact center sector. In 2019, turnover soared to 418 million euros, representing 63,6% of the sector, according to the Central Balance-Sheet Database of Banco de Portugal. The APCCs already has 92 Associates.

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