Christmas is a time for reflection and when I reflect on the past 12 months I realise just how much the CCMA has achieved. After evaluating the needs of the Industry Suppliers, Employers, Members and Participants we engaged the marketplace to form the way for a New Strategy.

With this we expanded the portfolio of services, our calendar of events and implemented new member initiatives. Engaged at Ministerial Level regarding the issues that face the industry, consequently facilitated a ministerial roundtable and commenced work with various Government departments in regional areas.

We facilitated and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ATA with the view to creating a single unified industry body, helped to develop clearer contact centre career pathways with the establishment of JobCall an industry-wide portal for recruitment, refreshed our brand and approach and built a new website (still with some teething issues) to act as the Industry Portal for Media and Industry Updates, Education, Networking Forums, White Papers etc.

Overall this allowed the CCMA to contribute to the elevation of the role the industry plays in the financial strength and well-being of Australia. Activities that don't always demonstrate immediate results however the plan is in play so the effects will be apparent in the future.

Personally it has been a particularly busy year with some changes to the team and my continued work overseas with various APAC Associations and the UK Contact Centre Associations.  With this also presented the opportunity to travel to nearby countries to experience the contact centre industry from different local perspectives, judging the Indonesian and the Singaporean Contact Centre Awards.  I also had the opportunity to meet and hear from international speakers at the annual APPCAL expo in China and Hong Kong where I joined my counterparts from 10 different Asia Pacific countries to work on promoting APAC as a viable Contact Centre destination.

Our continued support of the reward and recognition of the people in the industry was well received with the 2011 APAC Government Contact Centre Award Winners; Service SA, Bankstown City Council, Centrelink, Metlink - Aegis and WorkCover NSW.

Also at the APAC Contact Centre World's 2011 'Top Ranking Performers' Awards where Martin Sizer, Director Cummins Support Centre was recognised with two prestigious APAC awards for 'Best Small Contact Centre' (under 50 seats). Martin was also awarded 'Best Operational Manager' APAC and the Cummins Support Centre won Silver in the 'Best Help Desk' category.

iSelect, represented by General Manager Joanna Thomas, won the APAC Gold award for Best Mid Sized contact center (in-house), beating Singtel, AMP and Bank of Queensland.  The iSelect team also won Silver Awards for Operations Manager and Contact Center Support Professional.

At the CCW.com World Awards, iSelect won Global Silver award for Best Mid Sized contact centre (in-house), beating Sportingbet Ireland and Scotiabank Jamaica. Steve Tassone also won a Global Silver Award for 'Best Operations Manager. 

CONGRATULATIONS to these winners and others such as St George, AMP who were also recognised for their achievements at these awards!

The strength of the CCMA is in the support from the community and in line with this I am pleased to announce Polaris have renewed their Sponsorship with CCMA. 

A proud Platinum CCMA Sponsor for 5 years running, we are both excited about the continued relationship and the prospect of working together again in 2012.  Australia’s leading supplier of telecommunications products to contact centres the Polaris Sponsorship signifys an extension of the Polaris commitment to the contact centre industry and their passion for acoustic safety and comfort for all contact centre employees.

Welcome also to new Sponsor CPS Technology Group; A telephony business with 5 offices located throughout Australia, CPS has the ability to help call centres look at the whole ICT package rather than just the telephony piece of the puzzle and their multi vendor relationships with organisations like Telstra, NEC, IPFX, Cisco, Zeacom and Interactive Intelligence allow them to offer both cloud and on-premise solutions to meet any budget. 

For those of you that know my passions will know education of the workforce is high on my list and I am proud to welcome new Partner COPC;  As the world's leading authority on customer contact centre and vendor management operations, COPC continue to define the industry standards for call centre excellence.  CCMA have partnered with COPC the industry's only proven set of global best practices to educate our workforce on cost, process and efficiency improvement to boost client satisfaction and build the bottom line to deliver.  Since 1996, COPC Inc. has helped more than 1,000 organizations in 50 countries maximize their operations and transform their cultures for a winning competitive advantage.

The strength of the CCMA also comes from your support, ALL Sponsors, Members, Partners and Supporters who come together under our banner to unite on a common front for the betterment of the industry.  Included in this united front are my national team who voluntarily spend their time as a demonstration of their dedication to the industry.

My personal thanks to you all for your commitment, support and contribution and I look forward to that continuing into 2012.

On behalf of the CCMA, my very sincere wishes to you and your loved ones for a Merry Christmas and safe holidays!

Warm Regards

Anita Bowtell, President CCMA