Durban-based Talksure, an independent financial services company specialising in outsourcing, is expanding internationally.
Commercial director Jordan Shaw will take a new role encompassing UK, Australia and the US, while continuing to build the business in South Africa.
The company hopes to position SA, and itself, as a destination of choice for outsourcing. From this month, Shaw will widen his remit to develop the international pipeline and manage new accounts.
Established in 2010 in Durban, Talksure is a customer-focused call centre and a licensed financial services provider offering broker and intermediary solutions for insurers with a range of insurance products, including personal lines, short-term insurance, long-term insurance and medical gap cover.
As part of his new international role, Shaw will maintain his function as the external face of Talksure and continue to manage key domestic partners in SA. Additionally, he will look to partner with new international clients, targeting an additional 250 full-time equivalent (FTE) seats for international clients over the next 18 months.
Shaw has helped the company secure over 400 FTE seats within the South African business process outsourcing (BPO) space within key sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, retail and security.
“This venture has been carefully planned over many months to support Talksure’s strategy of international expansion,” Shaw says. “I will maintain daily contact with partners and operational teams based in South Africa and visit on a monthly basis to see domestic clients in person.”
Talksure CEO Jacques de Beer notes Shaw has been an instrumental part of the company's growth plan.
“We look forward to replicating continued success in South Africa in addition to building long-term international partnerships; essentially, we want to take our winning domestic formula and go global," says De Beer.
Shaw says the company always looks to grow and venture into new markets.
“Whilst already having an international presence, the time is right to further invest resources to increase our presence globally. South Africa as a BPO destination continues to grow from strength to strength and is a viable alternative for international companies to invest as opposed to the more commonly known outsourcing countries of India and the Philippines.”
He says as a contact centre, Talksure is heavily dependent on technology, using a variety of systems, including ViciDial, Power BI and BYC Aqua.
“We utilise a CRM system that is custom-developed to ensure we can cater for everything from quoting to policy management, to customer services and retentions. Recently reviewed by Dimension Data as best-in-class, our data warehouse is built in a STAR schema and is able to present a complete and integrated view of the entire business.”
According to Shaw, Talksure’s IT team has achieved 98% availability over the last 12 months and makes use of secure network systems, maintaining call recordings at three locations including an off-site location, HA redundant stack, Fortigate and client CRM systems which are ring-fenced upon its own servers.
The company is also building a customised administration solutions system with MIP, he notes.
Shaw will be based in Birmingham in the UK, and spend a lot of time across many cities in the UK and internationally, as well as in SA.
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