Contact Industry Hub – October 2009

In the Western Cape, Fusion Outsourcing and the Exigent Group were the big winners, taking home nine out of a possible 21 awards, in a glitzy ceremony held at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

Fusion Outsourcing followed up an impressive showing at the 2008 awards by taking home six awards at this year’s event - Best Manager; Customer Service Agent; Sales Agent; Offshore Customer Service – Enterprise; HR Internal; and Offshore BPO Centre - Enterprise. The Exigent Group were the other major winners, taking home the awards for Best Supervisor; Offshore Customer Service – Emerging; and Offshore BPO Centre - Emerging.

“The Awards acknowledge those individuals who have made an important contribution to the growth and development of contact centre industry both from a local and global standpoint,” says Sipho Zungu, CEO of BPeSA Western Cape.

“For any company to win six awards in such a competitive environment is a fantastic achievement and is testament to their hard work and commitment.”

Other winners of the night included; Direct Channel Holdings (Support IT - Individual); Mazambane Trading (Best Support Coach Professional); Old Mutual (SA Customer Service); Emmanuels Staffing Solutions (HR External); Quest Flexible Staffing Solutions (Trading Provider - Enterprise); Contact Centre Dynamics & Distinct Solutions (Trading Provider - Emerging); Metropolitan Health Corporate (Technical Innovation Internal); 1Stream (Technical Innovation - Vendor); Shell Global CSC Cape Town (Non Technical Innovation - Internal); Full Circle South Africa (Non Technical Innovation - Vendor); HomeChoice (Best Outbound Campaign); and Merchants (Best SA/BPO Contact Centre).

According to Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism for the Western Cape, the call centre industry has played a key role in the social and economic development of the province. The total economic impact of the sector is estimated to be in the region R3 billion of the gross regional product for the province.

“This industry continues to grow and much of the thanks for this success must go to the agents themselves, who continue to provide excellent levels of service. To all our winners, congratulations and we wish you well for the national awards ceremony taking place in November,” states Winde.

In the annual Gauteng BPO African Stars Awards, companies and individuals were honoured across a total of 27 categories. The goal of the awards was described as offering the Gauteng contact centre industry the opportunity to raise a flag to the global environment and showcase what the sector has to offer, based on international benchmarks.

Scoring just one fewer award than the Western Cape’s Fusion Outsourcing, Aegis South Africa picked up eight awards, including: Best Offshore Customer Service; Best BPO Centre – Offshore; Non Technical Innovation – Internal; Best BPO Centre SA; Best Support Coach (Alson Mathe); Best Workforce Planning Professional (Eric Schutte); Customer Service Agent (Yvette Tshambo); and AVAYA Supervisor of the Year (Praveer Seevaparsaid).

There were two awards each for Liberty Life (Telkom Green & Wellness Award and Best SA Customer Service); Standard Bank (Outbound Campaign and Technical Innovation – Internal); the Absa Contact Centre (Non Technical Innovation – External and AVAYA Manager of the Year - Monica Cameron); Kelly (Community Spirit – Enterprise and External HR Company); and O'Keeffe & Swartz (In-House Trainer of the Year - Divinia Fernandes Esch and Sales Agent of the Year - Jayshree Reddy).

Other victors at the Gauteng awards were: Hands on Treatment (Community Spirit – Emerging); Nedbank (Knowledge Executive Best QA Support Professional - Aneshrie Yasar); Quest Flexible Staffing Solutions (Outsourced Training Provider); i-Fundi (Non Technical Innovation - Internal - Emerging); IBM (Best Non English Language - International); Spescom Datafusion (Technical Innovation External - Enterprise); De Villiers, Bester & Associates (Technical Innovation External - Emerging); Direct Channel Holdings (Best IT & Infrastructure Professional - Vincent Masindi); and The Gijima Training Institute (Outsourced Trainer of the Year - Claire O'Keeffe).

“These winners clearly show the strength of the Gauteng Contact Centre industry and we are clearly on track for our Gauteng 2014 strategy, aimed at growth in BPO and which has been co-ordinated in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Government, GEDA and the metros, and in the context of the national strategy,” BPeSA Gauteng, CEO Keryn House told the audience.

“Among our critical focus areas for the near future are the coordination of the development and marketing efforts of the region to the US, UK and Europe, in order to clearly present Gauteng’s competencies and the increased adoption of outsourcing locally. With these award winners helping to lead the way, achieving these goals should be much easier for BPeSA Gauteng.”