South Africa Emerging in the Global BPO Marketplace
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is commonplace in the receivables management industry, with third-party collections vendors outsourced by creditors and debt buyers as a business process norm. Yet, global BPO is still somewhat of an unknown territory for some receivables businesses. Those who do participate in offshoring might do so in popular and longer-established offshore locales such as India, South America, or the Caribbean. However, as discussed in this Receivables Webinar with Carl de Villiers and Stephan Venter, South Africa has become one of the latest to emerge as a highly viable option on the map of global CX/BPO options.
Language & Culture
According to the Ryan Strategic Advisory Survey, South Africa offers affordable, high-quality, deeply capable, empathetic and innovative service offerings. While it’s a culturally and linguistically diverse country, English is the common language. Younger generations in particular learn English throughout their school lives and generally graduate with excellent fluency and neutral accents, providing an increasingly large talent pool for cross-cultural CX & BPO businesses. With the rise of accessibility to US-originated media, a deeper and more inherent understanding of the culture becomes more and more embedded, with an increase of basketball and NBA fandom as an example.
Telecommunications Infrastructure
For those curious about the communications infrastructure of South Africa, there are now 9 international subsea internet cables landing in South Africa, with companies such as Google, Meta, and other partners having majorly invested in Africa’s digital transformation over the last couple of years. The South African government has taken an active role in forming partnerships to accomplish increased connectivity as well.
CIA.gov confirms in its general assessment that “South Africa’s telecom sector boasts one of the most advanced infrastructures on the continent; the focus in recent years has been on backhaul capacity and on fiber and LTE networks to extend and improve internet service connectivity; several satellite solutions also appeared in 2023, aimed at providing additional backhaul and improving connectivity in rural areas; the mobile sector has developed strongly in recent years, partly due to the poor availability and level of service of fixed-line networks, which meant that many people had no alternative to mobile networks for voice and data services (2024).
Government & Economy
While Africa in general may call to mind preconceptions of governmental instability due to particular countries and their ongoing unrest, South Africa stands apart as a stable government since fully establishing independence in 1994 and establishing its constitution, effective 1997. The government is a parliamentary republic and operates as a democracy with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of power. The economy is generally upper middle-income and hosts Africa’s largest stock exchange.
Continually Improving
While much progress has been made in the 2000’s, there do of course remain areas of opportunity for improvement in economic disparity and rural development, as with many countries. That’s why it’s a good idea to select a partner that handles its corporate responsibility with care and intentionality. At Nutun, for example, the Social Impact Committee forms part of their initiative to build a better South Africa through charitable endeavors for sustainable impact, such as its partnership with Mellon Educate for underprivileged children— for every agent hired they have committed to educate a child through a literacy program. With BPO as the fastest growing industry in the country, providing employment is another way businesses like Nutun increase opportunity for citizens and help to build a stronger economy.
About Nutun
Nutun, is a leading provider of a comprehensive range of omnichannel BPO solutions across the full customer experience and credit lifecycle delivering business impact through creating efficiencies to its global client base. Nutun is headquartered in South Africa and operates worldwide with delivery networks in strategic locations such as South Africa, Australia, United Kingdom, United States and Fiji.
Its ability to provide differentiated business solutions is enabled by a talented team of over 8,000 professionals, powered by proprietary innovative technology in telephony, AI, data, omnichannel and analytics platforms, built over the last 25 years.
Nutun’s service offering includes: customer service and client experience (CX); debt collection and accounts receivable services; customer insights and analytics; legal process outsourcing and alternative legal solutions; and back office administration. As a BPESA member and award winner (Top BPO Operator – South Africa – 2023; Best Customer Service into Europe ECCCSA 2023; Top Employer – South Africa – 2023, 2024), Nutun, with its skills and talent, is more than ready to over-deliver on these offerings. Click here to read more about Nutun.
