• Aegis Australia has appointed a new CEO with 20-year customer contact executive Andrew Hume taking over the reins.
• Datacentre Africa, the premier regional event for IT infrastructure, will take place in Johannesburg 26-27 June 2013. Thinking differently about data centres provides the focus for this year’s Datacentre Africa (http://www.datacentreafrica.com)

In a move seen as increasing group synergies and customer centricity, Edelweiss Air is following Swiss International Air Lines by moving its global call centre services from Zurich to Mindpearl in Cape Town effective April this year.

Nils Flaatten, CEO of Wesgro, the Western Cape’s Destination Marketing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, welcomed the news of an additional investment in Cape Town.

“Edelweiss Air currently has two direct flights into Cape Town from Zurich airport. These flights have been well subscribed and have contributed to an increase in Swiss tourist arrivals in the city. The airline has increased its commitment to the destination by investing in the Cape Town-based call centre. This investment taps into the City of Cape Town’s strong BPO sector and makes Edelweiss Air the second international airline to do so. Capetownians will now man this call centre and deliver high class services to Edelweiss’ international passengers.” Flaatten said.

“South Africa has become the location of choice for many of the world’s leading businesses and was recently recognised as the Offshoring Destination of the Year in the National Outsourcing Association awards,” explains Fiona Meijer-Innes General Manager of Mindpearl Cape Town. “At Mindpearl we are looking forward being a part of Edelweiss Air’s rapidly developing business.”

Mindpearl is a specialist, global, unilingual & multi-lingual outsource contact centre provider delivering customer service, sales and business process solutions operating from Cape Town since 2001. Further centres are found in Brisbane, Barcelona and Suva, Fiji.

• The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched Open Data Platforms (www.afdb.org/statistics) for the following 20 African countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

  The Open Data Platform program is part of the AfDB’s recently launched “Africa Information Highway” initiative aimed at significantly improving data management and dissemination in Africa. Work is on course to complete platforms for the rest of African countries by July 2013.

• Outsourcing services providers interesting in promoting their services to a global market should visit www.theoutsourcing-guide.com

South Africa has been shortlisted for the European Outsourcing Association – Offshoring Destination of the Year Award.

The awards ceremony will take place in April and acknowledges service excellence for countries servicing the European market. Previous winners include destinations such as Egypt, Morocco, Romania and Slovakia.

The nomination follows on the back of South Africa winning the National Outsourcing Association (UK) – Offshoring Destination of the Year in 2012, an award previously dominated by global BPO giants, the Philippines.

“We have come a long way as an outsourcing destination and that is thanks mainly to the amazing talent pool we have at our disposal.  It is our people that make us stand out from the competition,” says Gareth Pritchard, interim CEO for Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA).

South Africa offers a range of outsourcing services from basic customer service voice work, to high-level back office processes. Global brands currently operating out of South Africa include Amazon, ASDA, British Gas, Bloomberg, State Street, IBM, EE(T-Mobile & Orange), Lufthansa, Swissair and Shell.

“As a service destination our strength lies in our English voice services which when combined with our cultural affinity to Western markets and time zone positioning to Europe make us a highly attractive offshoring location. On top of this we are able to offer niche voice and back office services to a number of European locations including Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxemburg and France,” says Pritchard.

“The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) is pleased to acknowledge this prestigious nomination as it further serves to validate the South African value proposition and incentive offering, which together have positioned South Africa as a BPO destination of choice,” says Yunus Hoosen, Chief Director: Investment Promotion & Facilitation, the dti.

The BPO and Offshoring sector in South Africa is responsible for an estimated 18,000 jobs and is expected to grow significantly over the next two to three years.

According to leading analysts Frost and Sullivan, “Large global BPO operators are set to dominate South Africa’s BPO landscape within four years through acquisitions with offshore-related FTEs set to increase from 10,000 in 2010 to 40,000 in 2015.”

BPeSA

BPeSA is an Investment Agency for the BPO sector in the South Africa and facilitates the growth of the BPO and contact centre industry. As an investment agency, the organisation’s core focus is on attracting foreign investment, in order to drive job creation to the province.

Speaking at the official re-launch of BPeSA National (South Africa BPO industry body) interim CEO Gareth Pritchard talked about the job creation opportunities available in the sector and the organisations commitment to driving Foreign Direct Investment into the country.

“Over 50 key stakeholders in the industry attended the re-launch event. There was agreement that Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban represented the major BPO hubs in South Africa and that a concerted National effort would continue to help attract international investors. Job creation was the overriding theme of the event,” says Pritchard.

BPO & Offshoring sector in South Africa is responsible for around 16,500 jobs and is seen as a major driver for socio and economic growth in the country.

According to analysts Frost and Sullivan “Large global BPO operators are set to dominate South Africa’s BPO landscape within four years through acquisitions with offshore-related FTEs set to increase from 10,000 in 2010 to 40,000 in 2015”

South Africa had a break out year in 2012 winning Offshoring Destination of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association Awards in the UK. The Award followed on the back of major investment from three global BPO operators, WNS, Capita and Serco.

As a service destination South Africa caters for a number of prominent international brands including Amazon, British Gas, Shell, Lufthansa, Shop Direct, TalkTalk, SwissAir, T-Mobile and IBM. “We are blessed with a large English speaking talent pool that provides neutral easy to understand accents together with cultural affinity to Western markets. Added to this we are perfectly positioned in terms of time zones to service the European market and are able to do this while offering savings to source destinations of between 50 – 70%,” says Pritchard.

“As the investment vehicle for the sector I am very excited about this opportunity that will allow me to work alongside the various regions in making South Africa the BPO destination of choice. “As a service location we have a truly special offering built around the quality of our people which I believe is second to none; if 2012 was a great year I can’t wait to see what 2013 has to offer.”

BPeSA Western Cape

BPeSA Western Cape is an Investment Agency for the BPO sector in the Western Cape and facilitates the growth of the BPO and contact centre industry. As an investment agency for the Western Cape, the organisation’s core focus is on attracting foreign investment, in order to drive job creation to the province.

By Nicola Mawson, ITWeb deputy news editor.

SA’s business processing sector last year facilitated the creation of a potential 2 690 jobs, as part of government’s bid to grow the sector.

Trade and industry director-general, Lionel October, recently told a select committee on trade and international relations that R4 billion was invested in the sector last year, which led to the creation of
2,690 potential new jobs. Last year, umbrella body Business Process enabling SA (BPeSA) said about 30 000 jobs should be created in the sector by 2016. In January 2011, the industry employed about 10 000 people. http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54447:bpo-incentives-pay-off&goback=%2Egde_2358260_member_116485409

Source: ITWeb http://www.itweb.co.za

Vision Economic Pillar

The Kenya Vision 2030 economic pillar will kick off in proud partnership with the Kenyan ICT Board at the East Africa Outsourcing (EAO) Summit 2012 in Nairobi. Hosted by international business-to-business conferencing company, Kinetic Events; the summit will provide a platform for existing and potential players in outsourcing industries worldwide, looking to reduce costs and efficiency pressures, by outsourcing business processes to East Africa.

The Vision aims to maintain a sustained economic growth rate of 10 per cent per annum from 2012, with a focus on macroeconomic stability, infrastructural development; science, technology and innovation (STI), land reforms, human resource development, and security and public sector reforms.

The Kenyan Government and Emirates Telecommunication Technology (Etisalat), together with local investors, launched The East Africa Marine Systems (TEAMS) fibre optic undersea cable project, preparing Kenya with the technology to establish a major Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) park. This reinforces Nairobi as a major international financial hub to accelerate economic growth and gain a stronger presence in Africa’s rapidly growing financial services market.

Shannon Mackrill, Joint Managing Director at Kinetic Events says, “The outsourcing of companies to handle business activities that would ordinarily be conducted in-house, could be provided locally, however they are increasingly being conducted off-shore and abroad at low-cost locations. Given the size of the market and the addressable demand, there is an opportunity for emerging economies to provide BPO services to the developed world. Kenya has recognised and taken advantage of this opportunity and will put the country on parity with IT service competitors on the continent, including South Africa, as one of the fastest growing developing outsourcing destinations.”

The cross-industry event will be held at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel from 5 to 6 June 2012, and will host senior-level professionals currently outsourcing, or considering the options, exploring both operational and technological strategic issues shared by leading decision makers globally or seeking to influence market share and profitability.

The strategic invitation-only summit will explore the alignment of people, process and technology; offering insight into the solutions available to contact centres today, assisting companies in the negotiations and selecting the tools best suited to their needs. Attendees will be able to engage in interactive conference sessions and educational workshops designed for quality time and interaction with peers.

For more information visit www.eaosummit.com or contact Shaunei Meintjes on +27 21 555 0866 or shaunei@kineticevents.net. Follow @ITLeadersAfrica and @KineticEventsSA on Twitter for daily updates and news feeds.

By Nicola Mawson, ITWeb deputy news editor.

SA’s rank for BPO in emerging destinations is a vote of confidence, says Business Process Outsourcing enabling SA Western Cape CEO Gareth Pritchard.

South Africa has been ranked among the top three emerging business process outsourcing (BPO) destinations in the world. [Full story link here].

Source: ITWeb http://www.itweb.co.za

By Gareth Pritchard, CEO, BPeSA Western Cape, Offshoring South Africa

How much of an impact has the financial crisis had on the BPO industry? And what has it meant for BPO locations around the globe outside of India?

Market uncertainty since the financial crisis has led to a conservatism which has forced companies to delay their decision making, concentrate on reducing operating costs, and focus on short-term objectives.  At the same time the demand for protectionist measures is also becoming more forceful.

In their latest 2010 Market Vista report, Everest argues that the global outsourcing market has rebounded well with the overall number of outsourcing transactions increasing from 1,730 in 2009 to 1,979 in 2010. The recovery is being led by North America with Banking, Financial Services and Insurance and Manufacturing, Distribution and Retail continuing to dominate. Together these two verticals represent 35% of the total market in 2010 compared to 30% in 2008. Recovery in Europe is being spearheaded by the UK with a global overall share of outsourcing transactions of 14% in 2010. Everest reports how offshore suppliers on average continue to outpace traditional global service providers with growth of nearly 30 % in 2010 whilst traditional global providers have lost ground.


Significantly, Everest predicts a consolidation in the Tier-II service provider landscape in the near future citing recent M&A activity such as Hewitt and AON, Atos Origin and Siemens, IBM and Netezza. This kind of activity underpins the change in market structure by showing that the consolidation of vendors will reduce risk as will less focus on arbitrage and more focus on quality. Everest concludes that Africa can benefit from this market shift and can become the new frontier in global services.

In February this year, representatives from South Africa participated at NASSCOM’s leading industry event, the “India Leadership Forum”. The forum backed up many of Everest’s observations. With over 1600 delegates from 32 countries participating in the conference, it was used as a platform to show South Africa’s role in the future of the industry.

The world class infrastructure, placed under the critical global spotlight of the World Cup, was applauded, as was the stable political environment. Preference for a similar legal and regulatory framework also plays an important role in the decision making process. On the cost side South African government officials from the Department of Trade and Industry were able to demonstrate South Africa’s competitiveness by explaining the new incentive scheme which reduces costs by an impressive 20%. In the last 24 months, five of the top 10 global voice companies have moved to South Africa making it the third largest low cost offshore location for the UK market and I believe we will be seeing further investment, from both UK and Indian companies this year.

As global financial uncertainty has lifted, we are witnessing a much higher level of interest in the BPO offering in South Africa. Most recently Amazon has opened its doors with 1,000+ seats planned and the level of activity for inbound missions has also increased substantially. Recently a large Indian BPO provider came to the Cape Town to view operations on the ground. Why? “Because our clients are insisting we deliver a more global offering”. Their excitement after engaging with local industry representatives confirmed that BPO has a strong future in South Africa.

Recently, we showed a major UK telecom company the Australian iiNet site which is being run by Merchants. The iiNet environment is increasingly governed by new metrics such as Net Promoter Score which underlines the relevance of managing the customer experience in a holistic manner. The site received rave reviews from the UK visitor. Aegis, too, also stresses the importance of ensuring that “customer service process outsourcing is not about cost cutting but is seen as an investment to retain customers and enhance the customer experience”.

The combination of global players entering South Africa’s BPO market with the already flourishing local market highlight the country’s key role as a hub for BPO’s global services.

Source: SourcingFocus

By Nicola Mawson, ITWeb senior journalist

The South African (SA) Government’s new incentive scheme is expected to create 30,000 new jobs in the next five years, says Bulelwa Koyana, CEO of Business Process Enabling SA.

New grants to entice foreign companies into SA’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector are already starting to pay off as new investments are being attracted into the sector.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) new scheme came into effect this month. It replaces a previous system under which companies could claim for training and infrastructure.

Government’s new incentives will reduce the cost of BPO operations in SA by up to 20%, as investors will be paid R112,000 for each full-time job created and maintained. The incentives will be paid out over a three‑year period, in installments of R40,000 for the first two years and R32,000 in the final year.

The DTI’s new plan replaces the previous Government Assistance and Support (GAS) initiative, which paid out R688 million between July 2007 and March 2010. However, GAS had been criticised because of the amount of red tape involved in accessing the funds.

Local and foreign investors, registered as legal entities in SA, will be eligible for the programme if they create a minimum of 10 jobs.

Bulelwa Koyana, CEO of umbrella industry body Business Process Enabling SA, says the programme is expected to create at least 30,000 new jobs in the next five years. At the moment, SA’s BPO sector employs about 10,000 people.

“Quite a few international investors, mostly from the UK, US, and the Netherlands, have been waiting on the sidelines during this process,” says Koyana. As more investors take advantage of the incentives, about 6,000 jobs should be created this year, she adds.

Kobus van der Westhuizen, VP of Aegis BPO SA, says the programme will flow through to new investment in the sector as it makes SA more globally competitive. With the new scheme in place, SA is at least 50% cheaper than a BPO operation in the UK, for example, he notes.

The government’s new scheme has removed the red tape involved in claiming benefits, comments Van der Westhuizen. As a result, companies are able to factor the reduced cost into their planning, which was not previously the case.

Van der Westhuizen says Aegis SA has already seen interest as a result of the investment, and is currently busy with a project that should create 1,000 jobs. The project has been made possible as a result of the new programme, he points out.

The new incentive scheme of R112,000 per seat is almost double what GAS was able to offer, making SA far more competitive from a global cost perspective, says Koyana.

The programme will run for five years and any three years in the five can be claimed against for incentives. In addition to the per-job incentive, companies that create 400 to 800 offshore jobs will receive a 20% bonus on a once-off basis. This figure increases to 30% if more than 800 jobs are created.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40278:bpo-grants-paying-off&catid=69

After its stunning success of the Soccer world cup South Africa is maximising its time in the spotlight. The world cup showcased that SA is open for business and ready to really participate in the BPO market.

South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that is 18th largest in the world; and modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region.

South Africa reaped the benefits of macroeconomic stability and a global commodities boom, but began to slow in the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis’ impact on commodity prices and demand.

The economy is made up of mining (world’s largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship repair. The government is very interested in broadening its base into more white-collar occupations to leverage off its English speaking population.

South Africa has relied on the BPO industry to create more jobs for its citizens and to contribute to its revenues and investments.

According to a recent report released by the Business Trust and DTI, the total job created within the last six years is 87,000 and investments total to R1.5 billion. Compared to its targeted total job creation of 100,000 and R1.75 billion in investments, it can still be considered a success taking the global economic crisis into consideration. Though companies that depended on telesales work from the UK did not survive, the rest of the BPO industry is more or less stable.

With regard to South Africa’s training of BPO employees, the target of 35,000 workers both entry-level and supervisory was met. This resulted in the country being one of the best sites for inbound voice services.

Bulelwa Koyana, interim CEO of Business Process enabling South Africa (BpeSA), said, “We need to play by our strengths in the global market. Voice is our strength; for example, we don’t need to do extensive accent neutralisation.”