Contact Centre Industry News

Interaction SIP Station™ by Interactive Intelligence wins Network Products Guide’s “Reader’s Trust Award”
2010-07-30 IP phone replacement device honoured with a “Reader’s Trust” 2010 Best Products and Services Award in the voice over IP category.

South Africa meet Germany
2010-07-30 T-Systems interns work and play in Germany as part of Konrad Reiss Internship Programme

Funding hitch delays business park plan in Kenya
2010-07-29 Business Process Outsourcing firms will not be housed at Sameer Business Park in Nairobi soon because the government did not allocate money for it, it has emerged.

Amadeus spreads its wings into Africa with Integr8
2010-07-29 The Integr8 Group, the largest privately owned BEE ICT managed services company on the African continent, has been awarded a substantial extension of its full outsource agreement with Amadeus Southern Africa in South Africa. Service, complete support and managed services will now also be extended to another nine African countries.

TEAMtalk media expands call centre after successful learnership programme
2010-07-28 TEAMtalk media, a digital sports content producer in South Africa owned by SkyTV, has grown its Cape Town-based call centre with the full-time appointment of Achmat Ismael, a participant in the Calling the Cape/BPeSA Western Cape learnership programme.

Kenya: BPO Sector Shifts Strategy to Capture Foreign Business
2010-07-28 Developments on the global stage are prompting operators in Kenya’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to consider partnerships with foreign investors in order to enter international markets.

Bytes offers Mid-Market customers affordable enterprise contact centre capabilities
2010-07-27 Bytes Communications is pleased to announce that it can now significantly bolster the contact centre environment of its mid-market customers with the new Genesys Compact edition from Alcatel-Lucent.

Marval SA positions for future growth, expands offering
2010-07-27 Marval SA expands offering, supported by a host of new sales wins and sole distribution rights in South Africa to Marval Software’s products and services

No international bandwidth price war, please
2010-07-26 Head of Africa at Cable&Wireless Worldwide hopes he does not see a price war in the international bandwidth market, but he may be disappointed

The changing face of personal identification
2010-07-26 A powerful solution to combat economic crime is now at our fingertips. One South African company is leading the way in the world of identity-based security solutions

BPeSA seeks to appoint permanent CEO
2010-07-26 As part of its ongoing commitment to members, Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA) seeks to appoint an appropriate qualified and experienced, permanent Chief Executive Officer to lead the association in its quest to develop and grow the BPO sector in South Africa.

Marval South Africa now offering ISO/IEC 20000 training
2010-07-23 With the recent introduction of the King III report and the impending Company’s Act due to come in to effect this year, there has been a major shift in business thinking towards better IT governance, risk, compliance and sustainability.

Global Outsourcing Study Shows that Most Customers Don’t Have a Handle on Risk
2010-07-23 Results of a new global study reveal the concerns, effectiveness and best practices in risk management by organizations that outsource projects.

Avoiding pitfalls, holding on to talent – what decision makers should know
2010-07-23 A general increase in competition and related surge in interest and investment in technology to empower people and improve operations means that businesses have to focus on recruiting the very best skills available.

Capitalising off cloud-based human resource management
2010-07-22 It was only a matter of time before the production and application of technology within people management reached new heights in South Africa – and it has now reached the clouds, to be more specific.

Opinion piece: 10 ways hosted VoIP can help your business
2010-07-22 As with any new technology that holds opportunity for the business world, there has been a lot of buzz recently surrounding VoIP and its benefits. However, many businesses – both large and small – are still unaware of the extent to which VoIP can benefit them.

New communications infrastructure from the Integr8 Group a perfect fit for Stuttafords
2010-07-21 Stuttafords International Fashion Company (Pty) Ltd. has added a touch of style to its ICT setup and management of digital communication with an investment in the integration of a new unified messaging and collaboration solution, as well as support and helpdesk services from its ICT managed services partner, the Integr8 Group.

Vodacom launches 'hosted call centre'
2010-07-21 As call centres continue to expand in South Africa, Vodacom has teamed up with two other technology firms to launch a hosted call centre product suite that enables customers to get on with their core business, knowing that their IT infrastructure and call centre operations are taken care of.

Interactive Intelligence enhances offering for credit and collection industry
2010-07-21 Enhancements to automated dialer helps credit and collection agencies increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and maintain compliance.

Interactive Intelligence and Buzzient partner to offer integrated social media monitoring, routing and reporting solution
2010-07-20 Partnership helps enterprises and contact centres to route and report on social media content more effectively and efficiently.

Opinion view: Using the Fifa World Cup to make us Fully World Class
2010-07-20 "Well Done" to Spain for taking the honours, and "Wow!" to South Arica for hosting a world class event topped off by an astounding closing ceremony.

Accor Group selects Alcatel-Lucent
2010-07-19 Accor Group selects Alcatel-Lucent to deploy hotel telephony solutions worldwide that enable new personalised communications services for guests

11 Adderley Street building attracts new blue-chip business in Cape Town
2010-07-16 Growthpoint Property Limited’s revamped 11 Adderley Street building in central Cape Town is attracting new business to the city.

BI smarts that lets you 'up' your game
2010-07-16 After two decades, demand for Business Intelligence remains high. What has changed is that data volumes have exploded and markets are increasingly volatile, emphasising demand for faster, more accurate, and deeper insight into business performance. and the potential impact of market forces on operations and earnings. Analytics provides a competitive advantage - and unlike the solutions of yesteryear, these systems are today within reach of most and take hardly any time at all to implement and show a return.

Dogs definitely allowed
2010-07-15 Dog cushions are not a common business expense . . . unless you happen to be part of the Dimension Data team responsible for managing the Standard Bank call centre technology.

Falling short of ambitious targets
2010-07-15 THE government’s target of creating 100000 jobs this year through the call centre services industry is yet to be achieved, although contracts for 24901 jobs have been signed.

Bharti Airtel Earmarks U.S.$600 Million for Projects
2010-07-14 BHARTI Airtel, the new owners of Zain Africa, yesterday in Lagos, officially announced its entry into Nigeria's telecommunications market with a pledge to commit $600 million to the sector in the next three years.

Jozi gets gold for Phakama
2010-07-14 JOHANNESBURG has received a highly coveted gold SAP Quality Award for the successful implementation of Programme Phakama, its comprehensive software program that has streamlined its operations across the metropolis.

Amazon Plans to Open Customer Service Center in Cape Town, South Africa
2010-07-14 Amazon has announced it is planning to expand its presence in Cape Town, South Africa with the opening of a new customer service center.

SAS acquires UK software firm Memex
2010-07-13 SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, has acquired Memex, a worldwide leader in intelligence management solutions that help improve intelligence processes, enhance public safety, and prevent and deter crime, terrorism and other threats. The company has a strong presence in the law enforcement and homeland security markets.

‘World Cup: A great boost to South Africa economy’
2010-07-13 SOUTH Africa and its people have indeed benefited from the on-going FIFA 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Bytes Outsource Services boosts BEE rating to Level 2
2010-07-12 Bytes Outsource Services has improved its Empowerdex BEE rating from Level 3 to Level 2 as part of the Altron vision 2012 initiative. It has achieved an overall score of 87,21%.

Youth have potential to spare
2010-07-12 South Africa's young people could have much to offer the country, but too many of them are unemployed and thus not able to reach their full potential.

Do you know where your IT spend is really going?
2010-07-09 The IT environment is becoming increasingly complex, and with the emphasis firmly shifting towards greater accountability, improved efficiency and improved transparency, there is a growing need for organisations to reconsider their IT cost management systems.

Presence Social Media: how to integrate social networks into your Contact Center
2010-07-09 Presence Technology launches the Social Network solution to manage information from various social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Skype, and integrates it with the Customer Service Center.

O’Keeffe & Swartz chooses HP Networking in Converged Infrastructure Implementation
2010-07-08 “The HP Networking solution offers us excellent value, superior performance and great scalability, and the Lifetime Warrantyu eliminates expensive support costs. Moreover, HP open standards-based technology supports our existing Mitel IP telephony, there are free software updates and the after-sales support is outstanding. You cannot put a price tag on that.”

Dreaded' fault in undersea cable stymies internet
2010-07-08 A FAULT in the Seacom undersea cable which runs along Africa’s east coast has interrupted internet access for millions, including local users.Seacom said yesterday that its undersea cable system had collapsed, disrupting services from Kenya to India and Europe.“This is the one thing we have been dreading,” said Suveer Ramdhani, Seacom’s spokesman.

Wireless, a winning formula for networks
2010-07-07 The development, integration and application of wireless networking infrastructure continues to drive growth within the networking environment. It remains a force to be reckoned with, certainly from a volume of trade perspective.

Outsource incentives reviewed
2010-07-07 THE Department of Trade and Industry is reviewing the incentives used to lure offshore investors to outsource some non core services, such as call centres, to SA.

BasisOne attracts global acclaim for local IAM technology project
2010-07-05 BasisOne (Pty) Ltd., a member of Swicon360 group of companies and one of Africa’s first SAP-accredited hosting providers, has received a European Identity Management Award for a cloud computing solution the company implemented utilising IAM technology provided by Novell.

Entering the government call centre market
2010-07-05 Governments across the globe are moving towards providing the same level of service as their private-sector counterparts. Unfortunately, government agencies are faced with legacy issues and technologies, making the transition to newer technologies and processes difficult. However, deploying new technology will greatly assist governments to provide the customer service that citizens have come to expect. This is often particularly evident at the first point of contact with government agencies – the contact centre.

Reliability is key
2010-07-04 No matter what industry sector an organisation falls into, telecommunications forms the vital backbone of the entire infrastructure, and needs to be up and running at all times.

Alcatel-Lucent
2010-07-04 Alcatel-Lucent introduces Genesys Compact edition and extends contact center solution portfolio with expanded offerings.

The fundamentals of outsourcing
2010-07-03 The economic slowdown has seen organisations worldwide taking a leaner approach to their IT operations, in some instances it is estimated, cutting staff by as much as 17%.

Pastel call centre scoops international awards
2010-07-03 Softline Pastel, South Africa’s leading developer of accounting and business software has received international recognition by winning three awards at this past weekend’s Contact Centre World Awards run by ContactCentreWorld.com, the online magazine for the global contact centre industry. Pastel’s 140-seat call centre based in Woodmead in Gauteng won the Best Community Service category, was a runner up for Best Help Desk and placed third for Best Customer Service. There were five finalists per category with only three of those actually being placed. Pastel was placed in each of its categories. The awards ceremony was held in London on Saturday and benchmarks entrants against the best in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. The judges consider both management strategy as well as the actual achievements of the support centre and the final result is determined based on a combination of written entry and judging by industry peers.

How King III can shape your data recovery and business resilience plan
2010-07-02 The revised King Code and Report on Governance for South Africa, better known as King III, is the first corporate governance legislation that includes IT governance in its recommendations. It calls for companies to put in place “a framework that supports the effective and efficient management of IT resources to facilitate the achievement of a company’s strategic objectives”.

A sound approach to King III
2010-07-02 The King Code of Governance Principles and the King Report on Governance (King III), which came into effect in March 2010, has been met with a considerable amount of optimism, particularly in light of its relevance in the global marketplace as well as it alignment with the Companies Act no 71 of 2008, which is scheduled to come into effect on 1 July 2010.