Lower costs, access skills anywhere with remote contact centre

The concept of the remote contact centre worker is nothing new in the global market, and now thanks to the greater availability of bandwidth and associated lower cost, it has also become a viable option in South Africa.

"In the past, lack of infrastructure and high cost made this concept unfeasible," says Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion. "Now that we have the capacity to enable remote agents, contact centres in South Africa will be able to take advantage of the numerous benefits to both business and agents that this delivers."

Although South Africa still has some last mile obstacles to overcome, in the metropolitan areas, bandwidth is making its way to the home and office. This enables remote workers and not only saves on the potential cost of agents; it also means that the catchment area from where staff are available suddenly becomes far bigger. No longer is the pool of talent limited only to the area reasonably accessible to the contact centre by daily transport methods, but now the contact centre can hire people who reside anywhere in the country, or indeed in other countries as well.

"Employees can also be hired on a more flexible basis, so they can have hours that suit them or can be hired part-time to save costs for the contact centre. This flexibility aids with agent retention, reduces travel time and decreases the costs associated with running a physical office, in terms of both space and equipment," Fick adds.

Aside from the dramatically reduced cost of bandwidth and the improved reliability of the same, which has enabled high-speed access to be easily and cost-effectively brought into homes, the evolution of technology has played a significant role in enabling the possibility of the remote contact centre agent.

"Higher standards of voice and customer interaction and quality offerings such as new Web-based applications contribute to making South Africa a more attractive destination for BPO," says Araceli Aranda, CEO of Presence Technology. "The contact centre industry in South Africa is perfectly poised to take advantage of this evolution, enhancing its position as one of the main economic sectors of the country."

Technology has evolved, and bandwidth is now easier to access and more affordable than ever, making remote contact centre agents not only a possibility but a sound business option.