US telecom firm Avaya has set up an "intelligent communications center" in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, in a bid to strengthen its presence in the country.

The facility is part of a commitment the company made to the Dalian government in June last year to help turn Dalian into a call center hub for China and other Northeast Asian markets, according to Francis Scricco, senior vice-president of Avaya Global Services.

The center, located in the Dalian Software Park, will also be Avaya's software and service headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region, Scricco added.

Although the company is known for its IP telephony, about 70 percent of its global sales revenue of US$5.15 billion last year was from selling call-center products, including hardware, software and services, said another Avaya employee, who did not wish to be named.

According to a report by US consultancy Frost & Sullivan, Avaya tops China's call center products and services market with a share of about 20 percent.

"The world is becoming flat, as more and more international corporations are entering the Chinese market and more and more Chinese companies are expanding to other markets," said Scricco. "How well companies utilize advanced communication solutions can decide how successful they will be," he added.

In recent years, international giants including Dell Inc, Motorola and HP have shifted their call centers to China to take advantage of its cheap labor. Domestic firms such as China Mobile and Bank of China have also begun to establish their own call centers with advanced communication systems.

According to a recent report from Callcenters.net Pte Ltd, an Asian research firm, China's call center industry is set to grow 22 percent this year. And the size of the industry's labor force, including bank hotline services and IT companies' technical support staff, will hit 158,000 this year, up from 130,000 last year.

Although the size of China's call center industry is just half that of India's, experts said China's high productivity and cost-effective human resources will attract more multinationals to set up centers in the country.

(China Daily February 9, 2007)