BPO industry garners support

By Christelle du Toit, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 29 Nov 2007

A new body consisting of private sector and government players is being heralded as having the potential to unify the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Keryn House, CEO of provincial BPO body ContactinGauteng, says BPO2SA has the potential to bring the private sector and government together to form "a common front for SA".

BPO2SA will be a joint non-profit venture between industry and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and is in the process of having its business plan drawn up by government.

"I understand they`re moving quite fast," says House. "We need greater partnership with government in the BPO industry and, once we have created the vehicle for this, we can promote the industry overseas as a unified force."

Government, as part of its broader BPO&O sector support strategy, launched the Government Assistance and Support Programme (Gas) earlier this year. Under Gas, domestic and international BPO companies qualify for government support grants to bring investment into the country.

However, House says this strategy is aimed mostly at international players and especially at getting them to move into rural areas. For the domestic industry, she says, there has been a lack of guidance thus far on how the private sector can tap into government`s support for BPOs.

"Integration of the industry will create a stronger voice," says House. "Industry will never be 100% happy with government - we`ll always want more than the government can give. However, progress is now being made to become more organised and we have recognised that there has been change."

House says one area she hopes BPO2SA can make a real impact on is that of telecommunications costs.

"There has been some progress with the introduction of the second network operator and voice over Internet Protocol being legalised, but telecoms are still too expensive, and over the last few years we have definitely missed out on investment due to this."