BPeSA Western Cape - Investment Agency for Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring in Cape Town

Cape Town is rapidly growing into one of the world's premier business process outsourcing and offshoring (BPO & O) destinations, serving a number of high profile international brands, including, Amazon, Lufthansa, ASDA and Shell, while also playing host to global BPO operators, including Merchants, Aegis, Teleperformance, Mindpearl and Fusion Outsourcing.

Investment agency for the BPO & O sector in the Western Cape

BPeSA Western Cape is an investment agency for the BPO & O sector in the Western Cape and facilitates the growth of the BPO and contact centre industry in Cape Town. As an investment agency for the region, the organisation's core focus is attracting and facilitating foreign investment.

The organisation's core functions include:

• Providing information to and about the local industry
• Providing investment facilitation services in the relevant markets that are best suited to the investor
• Co-coordinating training and skills development for the industry at a regional level
• Serving as a industry body and trade association
• Acting as a communication point between industry members including, local, provincial and national governments

Source destination cost savings in Cape Town

Cape Town offers source destinations up to a 50% cost saving. This figure is set to improve even further with the new DTI national incentive scheme which pays investors up to R112,000 for each new job created and maintained over a three year period. With the incentive scheme in place, the cost per agent currently stands at approximately £12,000 per year.

On top of these cost savings, Cape Town offers a unique incentive to all new investors by providing free telco services for the first six months of operation.

Domestic BPO market in Cape Town

Cape Town provides a mature domestic BPO market which is enhanced by its large pool of world-class experience and skills in the financial, telecommunications and legal domains.

In terms of financial skills its tertiary education system produces large numbers of qualified actuaries, chartered accounts and other specialists each year. Sector-specific programmes in banking and insurance also provide intermediate levels of skill. South Africa is a leader in financial standards and it has been voted the top destination for auditing and reporting standards by the World Economic Forum.

Large pool of highly-skilled English speakers in South Africa

South Africa has a large pool of highly-skilled English-speaking individuals to choose from and it is second only to India and the Philippines in terms of English-speaking graduates coming out of BPO & O supplier destinations.

Telecom services for a world-class service destination

Rapidly improving telecoms services, both in terms of performance and cost have added to South Africa's standing as a world-class service destination. This, together with the landing of various international cables, will ensure that Cape Town is able to compete with other service destinations in terms of telco delivery.

Time zones, culture and location

Cape Town is perfectly suited to service the European market due to time zone positioning and its ability to offer cultural affinity to Western markets.

International brands outsourcing in Cape Town

Over the past decade Cape Town has played host to a number of major international brands, including ASDA, which has been operating out of Cape Town for the past six years. Amazon has also opened a customer service centre and in just over a year it has grown its operation to 1,000 agents for the 2011/12 festive season.

BPO & O sector in Cape Town

The BPO & O sector has been earmarked by the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town as a priority area for the upcoming year and is seen as a major economic driver for the city and province as a whole. The domestic and international BPO sector in Cape Town accounts for 30,000 jobs in the region.