South Africa"s offshore call center industry is growing. Cultural affinity of agents, an established call center industry, multi-urban centers, first-world infrastructure and multilingual staff amongst other features are all playing in its favor.

Independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts that offshore call center agent positions here will total 6 200 in three years time, a 34 percent year-on-year increase on 2003 levels. However, SA is only one of many competing propositions.

Peter Ryan, call center and CRM analyst with Datamonitor, and author of several reports covering this subject matter on a global scale, will present an analysis of "SA in relation to global offshore destinations," on July 29 at SACCCOM 2005, Johannesburg, RSA. The presentation will provide an overview of offshoring (market developments, drivers and inhibitors), and national market focus (SA, European nearshore & sub-Saharan, India and the Philippines).

The presentation will also highlight the most important factors when outsourcing, and the risks. Whilst India seems to be a benchmark in terms of a success story, and, according to Datamonitor, will remain the largest offshore contact center destination, the presentation highlights the fact that SA needs to start keeping a eye on happenings closer to home, as competition could well be lurking much nearer than it may think. And it is not just from Egypt, Morocco or Tunisia. According to Datamonitor, sub-Saharan African markets are showing potential to become solid offshore players in the future.

Botswana, for example, has a strong educated labor force, strong English fluency, aggressive promotional strategies and excellent incentives. In tandem with this, there is a strong focus on IT and telco investment. In East Africa, the launch of Kencall has put Kenya on the map as a new offshore possibility.

With the same population as Canada, it is scalable in terms of workforce size with strong English language capabilities. In Senegal, a number of French offshore facilities are currently in existence, it is a relatively stable investment environment, and there exists a strong IT and telco emphasis by the national government.