2019 Study of Contact Centre Operations in South Africa - Automation & AI Will Affect Job Creation Opportunities

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Dec 27, 2019, 06:00 ET

DUBLIN, Dec. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Contact Centre Operations in South Africa 2019" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report describes the state of the industry, employment numbers and trends and sector-specific developments. There are comprehensive profiles of 42 companies. These include Merchants which, with holding company Dimension Data, bought Canadian Millennium 1 Solutions; Business Connexion, which said it would retrench about 700 employees following a weak financial performance; and Webhelp, which is involved in an initiative to boost BPO skills in South Africa.

Contact Centre Operations

The South African contact centre industry, which is a sub-sector of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, contributes approximately R53bn annually to South Africa's GDP. Through various government incentives and industry initiatives, South Africa is attempting to grow its share of the BPO market to 4% of global revenues by 2030, from around 1% some years ago. The industry employs more than 228,000 consultants or agents, of which 38,600 are focused solely on international business. Contact centres are an important sector for job creation as they are labor-intensive.

Challenges of Automation

South Africa has a booming local contact centre economy and has been able to attract foreign investment due to incentives offered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In addition to the cost savings, South Africa is attractive as an offshore destination as it has good quality English-speaking talent and government support in areas of skills development and infrastructure incentives. While it is a job creator, automation and artificial intelligence will affect job creation opportunities as some contact centre functions become automated. Chatbot technology is being deployed for relatively simple, mundane tasks, leading to concerns that agents will become obsolete. However, artificial intelligence will increasingly be used to automate routine tasks so that human agents can focus on escalated issues.

Key Topics Covered

1. Introduction

2. Description of the Industry
2.1. Industry Value Chain
2.2. Geographic Position

3. Size of the Industry

4. State of the Industry
4.1. Local
4.1.1. Corporate Actions
4.1.2. Regulations and Government Programmes
4.1.3. Enterprise Development and Social Economic Development
4.2. Continental
4.3. International
4.4. Global Technology Trends Affecting the Contact Centre Industry

5. Influencing Factors
5.1. Economic Environment
5.2. Rising Input Costs
5.3. Technology, Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation
5.4. Government Support
5.5. Labour

6. Competition
6.1. Barriers to Entry

7. SWOT Analysis

8. Outlook

9. Industry Associations

10. References
10.1. Publications
10.2. Websites

Companies Mentioned

1Stream Managed Technology Solutions (Pty) Ltd
Accenture Services (Pty) Ltd
Aegis Outsourcing South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Altron TMT (Pty) Ltd
Avirtual Services (Pty) Ltd
Blake Connect (Pty) Ltd
Business Connexion (Pty) Ltd
Care Call Retail and Distribution Services (Pty) Ltd
CCI SA (Durban) (Pty) Ltd
CCI South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Digital Mall (Pty) Ltd
Direct Channel Holdings (Pty) Ltd
Dreamscheme 76 (Pty) Ltd
Durban Technology Hub
EC Three (Pty) Ltd
Ernst and Young Services (Pty) Ltd
EXLservice South Africa (Pty) Ltd
FSP Solutions (Pty) Ltd
Full Circle Contact Centre Services (Pty) Ltd
Gijima Group Ltd
i-Talk Call Centre Solutions (Pty) Ltd
IBM South Africa (Pty) Ltd
iContact (Pty) Ltd
Ignition Telecoms Investments (Pty) Ltd
Indox (Pty) Ltd
Laboria Solutions (Pty) Ltd
Mango5 Call Centre (Pty) Ltd
Market IQ (Pty) Ltd
Merchants SA (Pty) Ltd
Mindpearl South Africa (Pty) Ltd
MTN Group Ltd
Nextec Industrial Technologies (Pty) Ltd
O'Keeffe and Swartz Consultants (Pty) Ltd
Outworx Contact Centre (Pty) Ltd
SA Commercial (Pty) Ltd
SoluGrowth (Pty) Ltd
State Information Technology Agency SOC Ltd
Talksure Trading (Pty) Ltd
TP South Africa Trading (Pty) Ltd
Webhelp SA Outsourcing (Pty) Ltd
WNS Global Services SA (Pty) Ltd
Zest Hospitality (Pty) Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/571lf4

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