Telkom subsidiary BCX is creating new revenue streams by tapping into South Africa’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.
The ICT services firm has seen a reduction in revenue over the past years. In Telkom’s trading update released last month, BCX recorded a revenue decline of 3.6% to R3.7 billion for Q3 FY2022, as the company remains under pressure due to global supply challenges.
BCX says as part of its strategy to invest in high-quality growth, it has committed to driving operational sustainability through various strategic initiatives, introduced through its BCX Exa innovation business unit.
These include developing key artificial intelligence (AI)-based natural language processing technologies targeted at the global business services sector.
It is also looking to scale its security division, as local organisations increasingly fall victim to a heightened array of cyber security attacks.
In 2020, the firm launched BCX Exa, a digital division focused on helping local organisations to create digital capabilities, including setting up an online presence.
In an interview with ITWeb, BCX CEO Jonas Bogoshi said the digital wing, consisting of software engineers and digital experts, has since seen huge appetite for innovation in SA. It has rolled out various solutions, such as BCX AIOps, to help companies deliver optimal business outcomes.
In its latest move, the unit is creating cloud-based emerging technologies to help private and public sector businesses create “intelligent” contact centres to improve their customer service.
“Although BCX Exa is still a toddler, there are some key solutions that we have developed from the unit for the South African market .These include the COVIDConnect solution for the Department of Health for contact tracing and the Yep! Telkom Business digital marketplace,” notes Bogoshi.
“The unit is currently busy with natural language processing technology, and we have developed two different solutions in relation to this project. This tool uses AI and machine learning to allow South Africans to use their mother tongue to interact with a machine when phoning a contact centre. We have developed Qonda, a solution that is able to respond to simple customer queries without human intervention.”
According to Bogoshi, Qonda will help bridge the digital and language divide in the BPO industry, by allowing customers phoning the contact centre to speak in indigenous South African languages, and the machine will understand, complete the process and respond in the same language.
“We are currently testing this tool across one of our own call centres. This solution will play a key role in bridging the digital divide because the challenges experienced by citizens are not only limited access to digital technologies, but also the additional language barrier of, for example, having to speak in English to access these technologies.”
The South African BPO market is projected to reach $3.6 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period, according to research firm ResearchAndMarkets.
The local BPO industry has been a strong performer for the past several years, mainly due to the continued support it has received from national government.
BPO industry body Business Process Enabling South Africa has signed a deal with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and other stakeholders, to create between 250 000 and 500 000 cumulative new jobs in the sector by 2030.
Inheriting outdated technology
BCX was formed after IT services company Business Connexion was bought out by Telkom in 2015. BCX is the result of the integration of Telkom Business and Business Connexion, founded by Isaac Mophatlane and his late brother Benjamin Mophatlane.
“After the merger, BCX inherited fixed voice services from Telkom, and we found our traditional offerings and services were becoming a commodity because our customers were investing in new digital technologies.
“This was a challenge because it meant our high margin revenues were declining very fast. So we decided to conceptualise a five-year migration plan to move customers from old legacy traditional voice, to next-gen technology, such as voice over internet protocol,” adds Bogoshi.
The latest offerings form part of the five-year plan to invest in emerging technologies, he continues.
BCX is building a Security Operations Centre (SOC) in the vicinity of its Midrand data centre, after it repositioned for SA’s cyber security market almost two years ago.
The IT services company has established a partnership with European multinational IT giant Atos, to help South African organisations fight cyber crime using quantum computing, big data analytics and automation capabilities from the SOC.
According to Bogoshi, the increase in cyber attacks targeting local companies during lockdown has seen the security division become the second best-performing business unit, after its cloud division.
About 80% of cyber security incidents the unit fights daily consist of ransomware attacks, where hackers demand to be paid in crypto-currency, he notes.
“When we launched the security business, we did not realise the huge demand for security services in South Africa that would follow as a result of the current pandemic.
“This business unit has since experienced good growth in terms of revenue and established itself as one of the key suppliers of security services in South Africa. As a result, we are looking at scaling the business and increasing our security teams,” he concludes.
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