The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the South African Contact Centre Community (Sacccom) and Indian and South African contact centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry bodies have signed a memorandum of understanding on closer cooperation between the two organisations.
The agreement covers cooperation across areas such as the sharing of information, publications and research reports, joint surveys, sharing of contacts, the pursuit of mutual business opportunities and the facilitation of alliances with companies in each country.
"There are many reasons why this agreement is good for India as well as SA," said Md Shahab, VP of Nasscom. He was commenting in Johannesburg on why India should assist contact centre and BPO growth in SA rather than seeing it as competition.
"For example, the global outsourcing trend now demands that companies spread their risk, which means they do not want all of their outsourced support services in a single country. Many European companies also require multi-language call centre support and India can only provide English. We see aligning with SA, with its excellent infrastructure, language skills and favourable time zone positioning as a definite strategic advantage."
"The speed of India's growth to become the world leader in this sector demonstrates what is possible when the right conditions are created," says Mfanu Mfayela, CEO of Sacccom. "We expect significant benefits to flow to SA from this commitment of cooperation, as we strive to meet the expectations for growth in this sector."
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