South Africa's BPO Service Advantage Becoming Strategic in the Global Marketplace

by Willcocks, Leslie P.; Lacity, Mary C.; Craig, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781137474049
• ISBN10: 1137474041
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-02-12
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Since 2007, South Africa has been one of the world's upcoming Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) offshore destinations. This book is based on the authors' most recent research into high performance BPO globally and new research streams specifically on South Africa.

The results are divided into three sub-studies. The first study of country comparison shows South Africa, with centres and offerings in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, to be a cost-competitive, highly attractive destination in specific segments – voice, complex BPO, ITO, KPO and LPO - especially to UK and English speaking geographies with cultural affinities. The second study reviews research on South Africa and interviewed clients on their captive, partnering and outsourcing experiences in South Africa. The third study we examined in detail into seven cases - British Gas, Amazon, iiNet , Capita, CCI, radiant.law, and BP. The book concludes with challenges for South Africa.

Author Biography

Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks has an international reputation for his work on global management, outsourcing, e-business, information management, IT evaluation, strategic IT and organizational change. He is Professor in Technology Work and Globalization at the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science. He also heads the LSE's Outsourcing Unit research centre. He has been for the last 22 years Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Technology. He is co-author of 39 books including in the Technology Work and Globalisation Series Advanced Outsourcing (2012) and has published over 230 refereed papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, MIS Quarterly and MISQ Executive.

Dr. Mary Lacity is Curators' Professor of Information Systems and an International Business Fellow at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is also a Certified Outsourcing Professional ®, Co-Chair of the IAOP Midwest Chapter, Industry Advisor for the Outsourcing Angels, Associate Researcher at The Outsourcing Unit, London School of Economics, Co-editor of the Palgrave Series: Work, Technology, and Globalization, and on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly Executive, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal. Her research focuses on global outsourcing of business and IT services. She was the recipient of the 2008 Gateway to Innovation Award sponsored by the IT Coalition, Society for Information Management, and St. Louis RCGA and the 2000 World Outsourcing Achievement Award sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Michael Corbett and Associates.

Andrew Craig is visiting Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science UK where he helped set up and now works in the Outsourcing Unit. He heads the IT leadership and governance stream of Carig Ltd and is also a director of Board Coaching Ltd. He has coached executives, teams and boards in the Defence Procurement Agency, the UK Border Agency, the leisure industry, Balfour Beatty, HSBC and finance and fund management companies. He is co-author of The Outsourcing Enterprise: From Cost Management to Collaborative Innovation (Palgrave, 2011). In his professional British Army career, as Brigadier, he directed the recruiting operation- an annual requirement of 16,000 people- and was responsible for Human Resource planning for a workforce of 120,000. He commanded engineering operations worldwide, including the first Gulf War and Bosnia, and led the UK's planned military response to nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism. He was awarded an OBE in 1992.

Table of Contents

1.The Global BPO Market: South Africa In Context
2. Country Attractiveness – International Comparisons
3. South Africa BPO: Performance and Prospects 2011-2018
4. In Their Own Words
5. South Africa BPO Case Studies: An Overview 
6. Case One: British Gas Selects WNS South Africa for Call Centre Services
7. Case Two: From Down Under To Over Yonder - iiNet and Merchants
8. Cases Three and Four : Launch Pads and Landing Strips - Full Circle Navigates Two Newcomers to South Africa's BPO Industry
9. Case Five: Talk Talk and CCI Transform a Supplier Into a Partner
10. Case Six: Radiant Law Rethinks Legal Services
11. Case Seven: The Value of South Africa's Shared Services 
12. Lessons And Conclusions
Appendix A
Appendix B