The benefits of outsourcing

Why Outsource?

Outsourcing is the process of delegating a company’s business process or activity to a third party. Some of the key aims of outsourcing for a firm are; benefitting from a lower cost resource, improved quality of service and using experts in a particular field to reduce internal operational pressures. When outsourcing there are a number of considerations and deciding on the location of your outsourced partner is an important one. Below is a series of key facts, stats and benefits of choosing South Africa, and Durban, as your outsourced home.

Financial Benefits

Achieve up to 60% savings in OPEX.

Improve cashflows through reduced investment into infrastructure, systems development, staff training and absenteeism.

Free up your internal resources for revenue-generating services.

Streamline your core business processes and decrease time wasted on non-core functions

Business Support

Real-time access to a team of industry specialists, chartered accountants, attorneys, and experts in operations, human resources, IT and compliance.

Assurance from partnering with a reputable organisation run by a professional senior management team with a proven track record.

Support from a skilled workforce with relevant industry experience.

Customer Satisfaction

Achieved from minimal downtime through business continuity and overflow capacity support.

Regulatory Compliance

Achieved through enhanced GDPR and data protection practices and policies.

Location

The Benefits of Durban for BPO

Durban has been one of the leading locations for manufacturing and trade purposes and this has contributed to its growth as an international BPO location. It is characterised by a large talent pool and low cost. Durban offers quality skills in the contact centre space, especially for sales work, but is also focusing on increasing growth in niche functions. It offers good quality of life at a much lower cost as compared to other major South African cities such as Cape Town.

Unique labor pool characteristics

The contact centre industry has thrived in Durban, mainly due to the neutral accent and superior English-speaking skills.

Additionally, the labour pool is characterised as being good at “sales processes” due to cultural reasons, which has made it an attractive choice for sales work in the voice space.

Development of the technology sector

Development of an Innovation and Technology Business Incubator (InvoTech) funded by the Durban University of Technology and Small Enterprise Development Agency.

Set up of Durban Technology Hub or SmartXchange, which provides enterprise development services to SMEs in the ICT sector.

Superior quality of life

Offers the best quality of life in South Africa as per the Mercer Quality of Living Survey 2019. Additionally, it is ranked highly in terms of city cleanliness.

Ease of doing business

Ranked 2nd in dealing with construction permits and getting electricity amongst key cities in South Africa.

Key Points

3.8 Million Population
2.3 Million Working Age Population
3,807 GDP (in billion rand)
< 55,000 Degree holders Available to hire at entry level every year
3rd Largest employed talent pool
65-75% Lower costs than tier-2 cities in England
Key Universities University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban University of Technology
Transport Infrastructure Established and advanced transport infrastructure.

For the UK, in particular, there has been a stigma around the Indian accent. South Africa, as a destination, because it has such a neutral accent, especially Durbanites have such a neutral accent, means the UK population is receptive to speaking to individuals from South Africa, and in particular, Durban.
UK-based contact centre

Durban has its act together in the BPO space and is expected to grow the fastest among all the cities in South Africa.
Outsurance

South Africa’s global business services value proposition

South Africa’s Global Business Services Value Proposition

Strong foundation in contact centres and niche areas
Deep domain knowledge in financial services.

Global delivery expansion from contact centres to non-traditional areas such as legal and healthcare, game development, mass communication and broadcasting, and learning management.
Significant cost savings
Development of an Innovation and Technology Business Incubator (InvoTech) funded by the Durban University of Technology and Small Enterprise Development Agency.

Set up of Durban Technology Hub or SmartXchange, which provides enterprise development services to SMEs in the ICT sector.
Skilled and english-speaking workforce
Fluent English-speaking talent with neutral accent and high empathy levels.

Cultural affinity with the UK, Australia, and increasingly, the US.

Availability of large, and trainable talent pool, with strong understanding of technology.

Availability of talent across multiple cities; additional talent pool via impact sourcing.
Sophisticated infrastructure and enabling environment
Availability of robust infrastructure and high quality of life.

Government support at national, regional, and sectoral levels to boost infrastructure and skills development.

Global contact centre standards ‐ ISO 18295 is based on South African standards. Multiple companies are POPI and GDPR compliant and have achieved ISO certifications.
Sizeable regional and domestic market opportunity
The contact centre industry has thrived in Durban, mainly due to the neutral accent and superior English-speaking skills.

Additionally, the labour pool is characterised as being good at “sales processes” due to cultural reasons, which has made it an attractive choice for sales work in the voice space.
Strengthening ICT and digital capabilities
One of the best ICT infrastructures in Africa.

Shift toward tech-enabled value addition to enhance customer experience: Evolving capabilities in omnichannel, customer analytics and next-generation solutions such as cloud, cybersecurity, AI, ML, and big data and analytics.

Deep domain skills

South Africa prides itself on its ability to offer both entry-level customer service work as well as complex back-office and niche domain services.

1st in the world for auditing and reporting standards

GDPR Compliant

World renowned data protection laws aligned to the UK and EU

Global pioneer and leader in international

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Lower voice-based contact centre operating costs than those in tier-2 UK and US cities

Significant cost arbitrage for voice and non-voice services

Lower non-voice business processing costs than those in tier-2 UK and US cities

1000+ Qualified Actuaries
7000+ Legal Graduates per year
12,800+ Master’s Graduates per year
43,000+ Chartered Accountants
45,000+ Research and Social Sciences Graduates per year
250,000+ Registered doctors, nurses and paramedics