The image of the Cape's call centre sector has been dented, but there is still enough goodwill to retain its prominence as an outsourcing investment destination, says BPeSA Western Cape interim CEO Gareth Pritchard.
Pritchard, former MD of Teleperformance SA, took over as the head of BPeSA Western Cape (formerly Calling the Cape) this week, as Fagri Semaar reverts to being chairman after holding the position.
Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA) is a national body formed more than two years ago to centralise international and local investment in the country's outsourcing industry, of which call centres form a part. BPeSA Western Cape is the provincial arm, although it falls under the aegis of trade and investment body Wesgro.
The call centre sector has become one of the biggest full-time employees in the Western Cape, with over 35 000 permanent jobs being created during the past eight years.
It has also attracted several hundreds of millions of rands investment from local and overseas businesses that have bought into the attractions of the province. These include a relatively well-educated population, common time zones with Europe, similar working conditions and, until recently, favourable currency exchange rates.
However, earlier this month US call centre giant Teletech suddenly pulled out when it lost a high-profile client, after operating for less than a year.
Furthermore, the change in branding from Calling the Cape to the cumbersome BPeSA Western Cape also indicated a certain loss in momentum in the marketing of the province as a call centre destination.
Another factor is the discussions within the provincial government of the Western Cape to consolidate a myriad of small developmental agencies into one overall body in order to improve efficiencies.
“Teletech's departure was a blow, but it is business as usual for the rest of the industry. The good news is that Amazon.com is about to open its client service centre this month,” Pritchard notes.
He says Semaar kept up the marketing momentum during his tenure as CEO, and this will be expanded upon.
Pritchard says while the name, which has been highly criticised, should come under review, this is not on the agenda yet.
“Discussions around the consolidation of the agencies are similar to the shared services concept in the corporate arena. It is about ensuring there is no overlap between different units or departments. However, there are no discussions around how this will affect stakeholders.”
Pritchard says he will be involved in the selection process for a new permanent CEO.
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