Galvanising business process outsourcing within South Africa
Empowering a digital workforce WRIT TEN BY
CATHERINE S TURM AN PRODUCED BY
M A LVERN K ANDEM WA
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SoluGrowth has completely overhauled its digital capabilities to become a leading business processing outsourcing company within South Africa. Director of Technology, Vikash Ramharuk, tells us more
R
enowned as the first black-owned, business process outsourcing (BPO) company in South Africa, SoluGrowth
has gained significant traction in supporting
growing African multinationals in industries such as mining, automotive and the public sector, with the emergence of technologies helping the industry surpass $20bn in 2017. Previously part of multinational professional services network Deloitte for close to 30 years, the business has completely overhauled its systems and processes and reinvented its digital infrastructure, embedding new policies and procedures which will cater to its growing client base. Vikash Ramharuk, Director of Technology, explains that whilst taking care of SoluGrowth’s back office capabilities and services which it offers to clients, it has been essential for the business to improve its efficiency, productivity and its overall margins. “In my role, I wear two hats: one is in terms of how we’re growing projects as
a business and as a brand but I’ve also got the responsibility of the Chief Technology Officer, where I look after all of the technology requirements and the digital and information requirements of the company itself,” he explains. “It’s been a good but challenging, both from a front-end perspective of growing the business digitally and also from a back-end perspective, making sure that we can actually keep the lights on and that the transition from Deloitte was as seamless as possible.”
Click to watch: SoluGrowth – About us
ADDRESSING STAFF FEARS Bringing new policies and procedures on board whilst embracing new digital
When they leave, access needs to be
tools, SoluGrowth has overcome a
revoked to remove them from the system.
significant culture change and read-
It is laborious, mundane and repetitive.
dressed the way staff work with new
“Nonetheless, when we introduced
technologies.
automation, staff were up in arms
“What we started understanding is
and were more than willing to do this
that the communication was not too
repetitive work because they just didn’t
clear. To this end, we have worked to fix
want a robot to do it. So, we changed
the communication, the culture, and
tack. What we said was, ‘We’re intro-
the way the firm introduces technology,”
ducing a new employee, and we give
observes Ramharuk.
all our robots South African names and
“Previously, employees had to manually
employee numbers. We’ve got Zuki, Zazu
create user access for people that had
and Khuti and changed the communica-
joined to log on to a particular system.
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SOLUGROWTH
“We told employees, ‘Here’s a new virtual employee, let this employee help you.’ So, in terms of changing the mindset of the employees, and changing the mindset of the workforce was very important to us. “It moved from ‘this is what’s going to be automated,’ to, ‘here’s a new virtual employee, how can he help you?’,” he says. “We have moved employees up the value chain, where they can take on tasks which are more strategic, creative, and more emotionally intelligent. We changed the way we introduced the technology to them, and now they’re more excited and want to learn what other technology can they use and have become more passionate, analytical and exploratory. “By successfully sending a positive message out to the market, where workers collaborate with technology, the business has improved its overall productivity and efficiency.”
“ Previously part of multinational professional services network Deloitte for close to 30 years, SoluGrowth has overhauled its systems and processes and reinvented its digital infrastructure” — Vikash Ramharuk, Director of Technology
UNLOCKING DIGITAL VALUE
SoluGrowth to support providers
By investing in updating its business
with executive reporting and business
processes, its backend processing,
intelligence. Whilst it has its core client
and robot process automation (RPA)
audience, the business remains keen
to improve operational efficiency
to open further doors.
for repetitive processes, increase
“We don’t want to limit ourselves to
client satisfaction and reduce costs,
just BPO work. What we are finding in
the business has fully ramped up
the market is that a lot of companies
its engagement with customers,
are not ready to outsource complete
vendors and suppliers.
business processes to us, but are
The use of automated reporting and data analytics (with information gathered from providers) has also
reaching out for basic solutions,” comments Ramharuk. “There are a number of organisations
enabled the business to undertake
that want us to help them automate
predictive analytics, which has allowed
their processes with RPA. Our goals w w w. s o l u g r o w t h . c o m
SOLUGROWTH
are twofold: one is driving automation efficiency and improving productivity, and our core business processes of the BPO company and our core organisation and secondly, we are using digital technology and solutions to look at new opportunities. “We did an exercise for a huge mining company in South Africa, where we’re using RPA for their group travel. We found that some of the travel is booked too late or booked out of the policies and rules which are in place. “We use the information and analytics that we derive from them to help the
“ We have worked to fix the communication, the culture, and the way to introduce technology” — Vikash Ramharuk, Director of Technology
organisation - but not to take that
in South Africa, as many clients in the
information and use it to attract new
country remain hesitant for their data
clients. We tend to stay away from
to leave the country.
that, in order to gain the security and trust of our clients.”
“Even in our non-disclosure agreements with clients, we tend not to use information that we gather from
PROMOTING COLLABORATION
clients and then take them to other
Whilst SoluGrowth remains on the
potential clients. Instead, we look at
lookout for new opportunities that
the information provided and then
digitisation will bring, the business
illustrate a model where we can help
faces challenges with regards to its
them,” explains Ramharuk.
newly adopted, cloud infrastructure.
“We don’t want to accumulate data
With competitors such as Amazon and
from a company and go to a competitor
Microsoft Azure, the business has
and provide them with the same solution.
appointed provider, Dimension Data
Our principle is to gather a lot of data w w w. s o l u g r o w t h . c o m
and assist our clients with that data,
to its secure network, SoluGrowth
to help them grow, to make them more
has integrated three different firewall
effective, more efficient, and make
technologies and firewall layers within
them more aware of how this data—
its cloud environment, and invested
with machine learning, and predictive
heavily in cybersecurity strategies,
analysis — has brought about change
technologies, and implementations with
in the organisation.”
third parties, vendors and companies.
With such vast volumes of data
“A lot of policies we have also driven
obtained from its clients, the business
by requirements that come in from
has placed significant investment in
businesses,” notes Ramharuk.
strengthening its data security. Intro-
“For example, we run a payroll division,
ducing factor authentication for any
where we do payroll for organisations
client or individual that wants to connect
in South Africa and worldwide. So, for
“ SoluGrowth has partnered with Dimension Data in South Africa, as many clients remain hesitant for their data to leave the country” — Vikash Ramharuk, Director of Technology
them to give us their payroll, it comes with a whole list of security requirements and recommendations that drive a portion of our cybersecurity strategy, to align with Industry 4.0. “With so many interconnected devices and interconnected solutions and a digital workforce, people are also not always having to be in the office and also want to connect elsewhere. It’s something that we take seriously and have started to implement our move towards to an increasingly digital workforce.”
ADOPTING INTELLIGENT SOLUTIONS Driven by machine learning, analytics, mobile and cloud technologies, Ramharuk believes that both robotic and cognitive solutions will further transform the market. “This is a big play for us, so we are investing now in cognitive machine learning to be ahead of the curve in five years’ time,”
FACT
• The first black-owned, business process outsourcing (BPO) company in South Africa • The global business processing outsourcing industry surpassed US$20bn in 2017. • P reviously part of multinational professional services network Deloitte for close to 30 years, SoluGrowth has overhauled its systems and processes and reinvented its digital infrastructure • SoluGrowth has invested in Robot Process Automation (RPA) to improve operational efficiency for repetitive processes, increase client satisfaction and reduce costs • S oluGrowth has partnered with Dimension Data in South Africa, as many clients remain hesitant for their data to leave the country • S oluGrowth has introduced factor authentication for any client or individual that wants to connect to its secure network, integrating three different firewall technologies and layers within its cloud environment
he says. w w w. s o l u g r o w t h . c o m
“ We’re the first BPO company in South Africa that’s 64% black-owned. It’s something that we’re extremely proud of and is something that we take to the South African continent” — Vikash Ramharuk, Director of Technology “A lot of countries are now looking into the African market as a great BPO destination. Given our location, our communication skills and with the third-highest skilled chartered accountants in the market, companies are looking to do a lot of business here and are looking to us to deliver solutions.” In alignment with SoluGrowth’s 2020 vision, the business sees itself as an increasing hotbed for shared services, with new technologies, predictive analytics and data reporting leading the way. “We’re also looking at how a VPN solution can run across a shared services platform, to deliver more technology, efficient workflows and efficient processes,” he adds. “Other technologies are also starting to emerge, such as optical character recognition.
We can help companies with the onboarding of customers. In South Africa, people are now using an app to undertake facial recognition, eradicating traditional paper-led processes, for example. “We’re looking at these sorts of trends, where people are investing a lot more in digitising a lot of back-office capabilities, using automation, analytics, and VPN technology solutions. We want to package all of these technologies together to create products that we can go to market with.” Gaining a positive, home-grown reputation, SoluGrowth has built the trust and respect of its target audience and enabled the business to drive engagement with its clients across South Africa and worldwide. “We’re the first BPO company in South Africa that’s 64% black-owned. It’s something that we’re extremely proud of and is something that we take to the South African continent,” Ramharuk says with pride. “Whilst we’re not competing with the likes of Accenture and the Tech Mahindra’s of this world, when we’re sitting in front of a Chief Financial Officer, he is pleasantly surprised to be working with a South African company that can give him world-class capabilities,” he concludes. “There is a lot that we take out of that, and a lot that we can take home and say, ‘You know what? We’ve done something valuable. We’ve created so many jobs for South African people and will remain a leading, respected South African organisation.”
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SoluGrowth 82 Grayston Drive, Sandton, 2031, Gauteng, South Africa
T 087 352 9100 E info@solugrowth.com www.solugrowth.com