Sipho Mkhanazi, one of 300 consultants who work for Operation Swordfish — the code name for South Africa’s biggest call centre — fields more than 120 calls a day from people in the United States anxiously enquiring about double billing, missing invoices or loyalty points earned through their membership to one of the US’s biggest companies.
The company, which is one of at least six multinational corporations that has offshored business functions to South Africa over the past three years, insists on anonymity because of the “perceived risks associated with offshoring” in the eyes of its 34-million members, said Marco Rihm, manager of Operation Swordfish.
Mkhanazi speaks to the callers in a crisp American accent, although he hails from Soweto. He solves their queries with the click of a mouse, calms them if necessary and succinctly negotiates credit in the case of double billing. The callers ring off none the wiser that Mkhanazi is sitting 15 000km away in Johannesburg.
He, together with his colleagues, have undergone six weeks of intensive training, including modules called “culturalisation” and “power words”, in which they were taught to talk American, behave American and think American — a human production line and a microcosm of the globalising world.
South Africa is poised to seize an expanding share of a booming global business process outsourcing and offshoring (BPO&O) market, such as call centres. By 2008 this market is expected to grow from about $10-billion today to about $55-billion and create three million jobs worldwide.
The country’s share of this market could reach $0,8-billion and create between 60 000 and 100 000 jobs, according to the South Africa Contact Centre Community (Sacccom).
Currently, South Africa’s call centre industry employs about 50 000 people. India, its biggest industry rival, has 250 000 employees.
Eric Wadsworth, the CEO of eQuals, a specialised business process outsourcer, said recently that South Africa has lost the business of 32 international companies due to high local telecommunications costs.
Telkom’s ADSL service, which was the subject of recent hearings before the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, is 148% higher than the average price elsewhere in the world.
In addition, controversy over whether the Telecoms Act prevents value-added networks (Vans) from self-providing hangs in the balance until the Convergence Bill, which is expected to clarify this matter, is promulgated later this year. On average, South Africa is $7 to $8 an hour costlier per seat for full-time employers than India and the Philippines.