Outsourcing operations overseas used to be slow and cumbersome, but digital technology has changed the game.
Since the invention of the wheel, technology has been making the world smaller. Today, with the rise of digital transformation and remote working, distance often becomes meaningless. We’ve all become accustomed to working on video calls, often including multiple participants in different countries. Instant messaging opens up two-way communication, and the cloud allows people to collaborate on the same document simultaneously, regardless of where they are located. This new, agile, footloose world is enabling businesses to recruit people from all over the world to streamline costs and widen their access to skills. As a result, more and more businesses are choosing to outsource to South Africa.
The rise of South African outsourcing
The last ten years have seen exponential growth for the South African Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. The country has twice been voted the outsourcing destination of the year, with businesses of all sizes investing in the country. With the government ramping up support to encourage further investment, the next decade is likely to see growth accelerate even more.
South Africa’s success comes hand in hand with the surge in digital technology and the rise of remote working. The two go hand in hand. As the workplace goes global, businesses are widening the scope of outsourcing operations to include more job functions and to improve the results for customers.
What was once the domain of functions that were previously considered low value – such as call centre operations – is now being applied to functions at all levels of the corporate hierarchy, including:
•Finance: South Africa has a reputation as a global financial hub offering high levels of expertise supported by cutting-edge technological infrastructure.
•Marketing: South Africa’s location at the foot of Africa makes it a perfect gateway to the lucrative African market. With wages being relatively low compared to the West, it’s a lucrative source of professionals across all aspects of marketing, from promotions to SEO and content creation.
•Software design: Finding high-quality software professionals is difficult and expensive. Professionals are in high demand with the largest companies gobbling up the best talent. In South Africa, you can source outstanding software talent that is both available for work and more affordable.
•Legal support: South Africa has a good supply of legal professionals ready to provide expert advice and legal assistance across all areas of the law.
Delivering these services has been made possible thanks to improvements in technology. Internet connectivity across the cities can match any location in the world. Strong governance and a robust regulatory environment mean data can move in and out of South Africa safely and securely without encountering any compliance issues from statutes such as GDPR.
Crucially, the increasingly sophisticated range of video technology is breaking down international borders and facilitating international cooperation on a scale never seen before.
For example, large video wall installations offer hybrid video conferencing facilities that effectively open up a portal into another location and allow people to meet one-on-one as if they were chatting in
the office. At the same time, documents can be easily shared in real time, leading to seamless and instant real-time communication.
Hiring staff in South Africa
Such agile and exciting technologies rewrite the rules on business process outsourcing. A traditional model in which firms worked with outsourcing partners who provided employees to handle simple functions is being replaced by agile multi-disciplinary teams capable of working as an extension to, rather than a replacement of, your existing domestic team.
This is made possible thanks to a young and increasingly talented workforce offering high levels of skills. The number of people graduating from university has never been higher, leading to an upwardly mobile, multi-talented workforce that is eager for new opportunities. Finding those opportunities in their home market has been difficult with unemployment levels staying stubbornly in double figures.
In a bid to provide this workforce with the high-paying jobs they want, the government has turned its attention to the outsourcing sector in a bid to bring jobs from overseas.
For overseas companies, this represents a way to plug skills gaps and manage increasingly tight budgets. Partially due to the impact of digital technologies, businesses need access to a wide range of skills – either on a one-off or ongoing basis – such as web design, software development, or digital marketing. However, finding people with these skills in their home market is difficult, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Those with these skills can charge higher wages and are likely to be hired by larger, better-funded competitors.
South Africa’s workforce represents a way to find people with the skills you need at a rate you can afford. Meanwhile, the latest technology helps you engage with them more effectively. When backed by video conferencing, instant messaging, and the cloud, they can become close members of your team, whether you hire them on a full-time basis or simply as freelancers.
However, remote technology comes with its own challenges, particularly around cybersecurity. As businesses embraced remote working, many created vulnerabilities within their own IT systems. Remote employees and contractors would often use their own devices to access the company system, creating unsecured endpoints that compromised the system security and created unmonitored access routes into critical systems.
The use of remote employees – whether domestically or when outsourcing to South Africa – requires a rethink of security strategies to account for more agile and flexible ways of working. Businesses will need to understand what devices are connecting to their systems, manage tiered permissions to limit access to only those systems each person needs to do their job, and have an ongoing system to remove access from contractors or remote employees once they leave the business.
Handling this can be time-consuming and complex, which is why it can be easier and more effective to work with an established, reputable outsourcing partner. These organisations come with the latest technology and best-in-class security measures. They offer a safe and secure pipeline through which to manage outsourced employees. In a high-tech world, they help you take advantage of everything the digital age has to offer without exposing you to the risks.
