The Gauteng Department of Finance (GDF) says the province has positioned itself to become one of the world's leading players in contact centre environment.
“The contact centre business has become one of the important employment creators in the world, and a critical resource for service-based industries.”
Contact centres in SA have a comparative advantage when it comes to operational costs. It costs between 30% and 35% less to run a contact centre operation in the country than in the UK or the US, according to the department.
“Time is another factor that influences the decision by, in particular, European companies, to outsource their contact centre operations to SA. This is because the country is in a similar time zone to the UK and Europe.”
Gauteng has embarked on a telecommunications broadband implementation strategy in the City of Johannesburg since 2004. It aims to reduce costs and take advantage of the Electronics Communication Act.
The implementation of this strategy will allow different municipalities to build their own networks.
“Investment in technological and telecommunication infrastructure puts the business process outsourcing and off-shoring industry in a good position to grow further and attract offshore contact centres.
“As the economic hub of the country, Gauteng has been mindful of the potential growth of the BPO industries and has channelled its resources into creating an environment where contact centres can grow,” says the GDF.
The 2011 Provincial Economic Review and Outlook publication outlines the distribution of contact centres according to type for Gauteng, as over 68% of call centres in the province being captive, 17% outsourced, and 14.7% are both captive and outsourced.
A captive contact centre is an in-house contact centre, which serves the needs of the parent company or group. An outsourced contact centre refers to contact centre services that are performed by a third party or by a specialist outsourcing company.
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