IPScape entered the contact centre services market during 2005, with a simple proposition ~ to make enterprise grade contact and call centres available to small and medium enterprises (SME) NOT just large corporates. The technologies IPScape developed offer full suite of richly featured contact centre services under the emerging model of Software as a Service (SaaS). This in effect enables SMEs ‘to pay as you go’ for the first time what had traditionally been a prohibitive investment into contact centre solutions.

IPScape validated their technology and business model with Australian customers including Nutrimetics, Teleperformance Australia and Customer Contact Services. Early customers demonstrated that scaling up (or down) their contact centres could happen in the time it took to read this article and place a phone call to Simon Burke (IPscape’s MD). The flexibility offered by IPScape reshaped the contact centre market for SMEs in Australia and provided the foundation for growth.

As IPScape evaluated its opportunities for new markets it considered India—the world’s emerging market for contact centres and ICT outsourcing, with a view to expanding directly or through an alliance with an Indian organisation. Without the available ‘free’ internal talent to develop new markets, IPScape was referred to ExpatriateConnect (EC) who workshopped options for new markets.

Before a new market campaign could be initiated the EC team appointed a project manager (John) to assist IPScape in evaluating the export readiness (company and product) and putting in place practical action plans to lift their readiness index. Once the export fundamentals were in place, an export roadmap to India was established for IPScape that included support from NSW’s Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD), Austrade, EC to augment internal IPScape resources.

A market assessment and visit was resourced and analysed by EC as part of their support to IPScape through the NSW New Export Opportunity Program (NEOP). From research and contacts identified in Australia to in market connections EC identified a range of market entry options for IPScape including beachhead clients.

Subsequently, IPScape is now in the process of remotely deploying its services into India with a pre-screened beachhead company and has a pipeline of qualified opportunities its is developing. IPscape’s ability to deploy remotely (from Australia) quicker than traditional suppliers has given IPScape an edge in the Indian market, confirming the potential IPScape has for developing future export markets. IPscape’s other market to be evaluated is the United Kingdom as many UK firms [and other Europe based companies] are outsourcing their contact centres and look to India. It looks like being at the decision point for outsourcing (UK) will accelerate the use of IPscape’s solutions in India – a joint go to market (GTM) program is in the early stages.

Simon (MD of IPScape) has recognised that ExpatriateConnect (EC) has been instrumental in helping IPScape convert ideas into an export roadmap and the assistance in putting in place export readiness initiatives has enabled the management team to focus on the export and Australian plans, with the help of export mentors at EC.

The process has also identified a number of lessons learned (LL) that IPScape and EC are willing to share with others as they develop their new market strategies:

• Global markets are tantalising but often pull and push Australian companies to a balancing point where new opportunities, with the ring of potential are tugging against limited organisational resources, can evolve into global operations or revert to domestic players.
• Preparation and planning enable companies to pick their timing rather than chasing opportunities
• Export readiness (company, product, management) is an on-going process with 90 day action plans that aligns the organisation with new market campaigns
• Market selection is about risk reduction and opportunity assessment – several markets IPScape considered as early candidates are still candidates but have dropped from immediate to pending based on criteria rather than emotion or past experience of executives in dealing with people from that country/region.
• Markets are not countries they are groups of buyers with common behaviour. IPScape has found that India is not a market it is LOTS of markets but the market IPScape is looking at that is located in India is the organisations in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai that provide outsourcing services to Australia, North America and Europe.
• Assessing the trade-off of risk versus certainty when assessing each new markets, channel partners, clients/customers or products is key to survival and growth and requires both experience (internal and external) and process to objectively evaluate options and learn from past choices.

This is but a brief insight into the dynamic company named IPScape and presents a small fraction of its journey which is certainly far from complete. If you would like further information on IPScape see www.ipscape.com.au or ExpatriateConnect at www.expatriateconnect.com