The contact centre industry can expect a resurgence of interest from international clients for offshore services, following the roll-out of the Seacom cable which is set to bring faster, cheaper international broadband to SA.
This is according to Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion, who adds: “Previously, all overseas voice traffic moved through the monopoly-controlled SAT3/SAFE cable that lands in Cape Town, at enormous cost, or had to make use of satellite connectivity, along with all the latency challenges this technology brought.”
Fick says this translated into a high-cost, risky business for potential international contact centre customers who were considering using local call centres for global 24x7 customer support, sales and service.
“Now Seacom offers them the opportunity of not having all their eggs in a single expensive basket,” notes Fick. He argues that while the Seacom cable is not a silver bullet when it comes to SA's high communication costs, it does double the available international bandwidth.
According to the company, in Malaysia and India, large European and US banks and ICT companies run massive offshore operations. South Africa can offer similar levels of call centre industry maturity, argues Fick, with high levels of contact centre management and stable, reliable operations.
“We live in time zones that are compatible with service hours in these countries; speak in pleasant neutral English accents; and our government volubly encourages growth and investment in the local contact centre industry, all of which are attractive traits to international customers,” he adds.
“Along with the lure of additional bandwidth the West Africa Cable System and the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System will bring over the next two years, it may be enough, together with SA's other highly appealing assets, to sway investors to re-evaluate the attractiveness of our destination,” concludes Fick.
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