Business process outsourcing

OVERVIEW Business Process Outsourcing

New jobs are coming on line.

There were 7 500 more people working in the offshore segment of the business process outsourcing sector (BPO) in the Western Cape in 2017 than there were just two years earlier.

Altogether, BPO employs more than 50 000 people in the province, against about 228 000 in South Africa as a whole. This is according to the Key Indicator Report of Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA), the national organisation with representation in the nation’s three biggest cities.

Sixty-three percent of the offshore market is in the Western Cape where the provincial government has identified BPO as one of the six key sectors that can create jobs quickly.

Western Cape authorities are acting on this by supporting training programmes. The City of Cape Town, the provincial Department of Economic Development, Agriculture and Tourism (DEDAT) and IT service management company EOH jointly sponsor the training and 12-month learnerships of 175 unemployed work-seekers in BPO. The municipality also trains 20 potential team leaders to build management skills within the sector.

BPO involves any internal functions that a company chooses to outsource to a specialist in that field, for example accounting or callcentres (also known as customer service centres). One interesting example relates to loading an aeroplane’s freight load – in Frankfurt. The loader does this in the Western Cape via remote cameras and weighing machines. After work the loader can visit the beach. UK shop

ONLINE RESOURCES

Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA): www.bpesa.org.za Contact Centre Management Group: www.ccmg.org.za National Department of Trade and Industry: www.dti.gov.za

SECTOR INSIGHT

Training is a key reason for the Western Cape’s attractiveness.

Asda and online retailer Amazon have large customer service centres in Cape Town.

The fact that greater Cape Town is home to three wellregarded universities, a university of technology and two technical colleges is a major advantage in attracting companies with sophisticated operations, such as BPO. A director of a British business intelligence company, S-RM, told the Weekend Argus that Cape Town’s position as a “knowledge nexus” was a major factor in deciding to open an office in the city. Other factors in favour of Cape Town are the relatively neutral accents, good infrastructure (financial and telecommunications) and the time zone being the same or close to Europe’s.

The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) offers incentives to BPO investors. A base incentive is calculated on projected offshore jobs to be created and is awarded on actual offshore jobs created. The incentive has a two-tier structure of noncomplex and complex jobs and is paid over a five-year period. A bonus incentive becomes payable at the end of the fiveyear period.