17 January 2007
South African IT services company Galdon Data announced recently that it was experiencing an increased demand for call centre solutions and services in Cape Town.
In a statement issued last month, the company said it strongly believed the call centre industry was set for major growth over the next few years as South Africa became the preferred call centre hub in Africa.
“London-based market analysis firm Datamonitor expects the number of call centre agent positions in South Africa, which is favoured by British companies for its cultural affinity with Europe, to more than triple by 2010,” Galdon Data said.
“According to Calling the Cape, a body that promotes call centre development in the province, call centres are crucial for economic development in the Western Cape. Nationally, the number of jobs is expected to grow to 100 000 by 2009.”
Galdon Data CEO Garry Ackerman said this growth was mainly as a result of the country’s affordable labour, good language skills and time zones that chime with Western Europe.
“There has been a sharp rise in offshore investors, local companies developing customers’ contact facilities for the first time, and new outsourcing businesses, many of them black-owned,” Ackerman said.
“South Africa is an appealing option for investors because it shares a time zone with Western Europe, and the high levels of education and familiarity with European culture means it is often seen as a high-quality niche market.”
However, he noted that some investors were deterred by the relatively high telecoms tariffs in SA.
Galdon Data provides services and solutions for call centres especially in the areas of business process automation and unified messaging. “This encompasses information capture, business information delivery, convergence and document solutions using the Microsoft, Captaris and Autonomy (Cardiff) range of products,” says Uwin Young, Galdon Data’s regional manager for the Western Cape.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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