3 November 2005

Durban: International outsourcing destination of choice

After 2 years of outsourcing technical and customer support to India, Brightview, one of the United Kingdom’s largest consumer Internet Service Providers (ISP's) has relocated this to Durban, South Africa.  Subsequent to investigating South Africa as an alternate destination, Durban based contact centre, bizWorks, was appointed by Brightview as the South African outsource partner.

Commenting on their decision to move, CEO of Brightview, David Laurie, said "India proved to be cost effective, but ultimately failed to meet our customer's expectations.  Durban offers a highly skilled and culturally aligned workforce.  Although the switch has only recently taken place, I am very confident that, not only will we be able to maintain a similar cost base to India, but the service level will dramatically improve.  I am delighted to be associated with bizWorks.”

Tony Archer, responsible for setting up the process for Brightview,
commented "I arrived in Durban in August and over the last 12 weeks we have employed 43 agents and trained them to deal with all aspects of an inbound technical support and customer services process.  I have been very impressed with the standards the agents have reached within such a short timescale.  The task of opening our call centre in Durban has been made easier as a result of the fantastic work ethic and enthusiasm of our team here, as well as the support from bizWorks."

The successful securing of this high profile client is the result of a team effort of the many organisations, both public and private, that have a passion to see Durban become the investor’s destination of choice.  Durban has actively been promoted as a contact centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) destination.  eThekwini Municipality established Durban Investment Promotion Agency (DIPA) to facilitate and encourage new and existing business investment into the region.  The recent formation of KwaZulu-Natal’s dedicated contact centre and BPO forum, KZNonSource, has accelerated this process.  SmartXchange is another initiative of eThekwini Municipality which is aimed at promoting ICT development in the city.  SmartXchange serves as an incubator for SMME IT companies in partnership with the more established IT companies.  bizWorks is conveniently and appropriately located at the SmartXchange facility.

Key role player in the industry, Willy Govender, CEO of bizWorks, has been at the forefront of promoting South Africa, and Durban in particular, to international markets and gives credit to the City’s commitment.  “No other South African city has as much local government support for the call centre industry.  The eThekwini Municipality is taking up the challenge to provide jobs and skills for the region and is succeeding in growing the local economy.”    

bizWorks has committed itself to developing skills of disadvantaged youth and currently has 70 learners, 40 of whom are now permanently employed within the industry.  In the past year, bizWorks has been responsible for the creation of over 250 new jobs in the contact centre industry in Durban, and also successfully lured other businesses to the region, creating a further 500 jobs.  bizWorks remains committed to the region, and fostering government’s aims to focus on the BPO industry as a  sector for job creation and poverty alleviation.

Willy Govender
bizWorks
SmartXchange, 5 Walnut Road, Durban, South Africa
Tel. +27 31 328 1000, Cel. 083 779 5441, Email: willy@dataworld.co.za

Louise Beghin
Freelance Communications
PO Box 69, Gillitts 3603, South Africa
Cel. 082 852 1030, Email: beghin@iafrica.com