Through the work of its Respondez brand, Spanco Limited has introduced its outsourcing solutions to Africa’s thriving telecommunications sector.
Though still in its relatively early stages of development, Africa’s telecommunications market is lauded as being one of the fastest-growing in the world. Throughout the 2000s, mobile telephony across the continent, particularly in sub-Saharan nations, skyrocketed to the point where today it is substantially more widespread than its fixed line equivalent.
As is the case for many leading businesses, Respondez has reacted to the rapid growth of Africa’s telecoms sector by expanding its presence in the region, partnering with some of leading players within the field.
Established in 2002, Respondez provides high value, cost effective contact centre outsourcing solutions through its own multi-lingual contact headquarters. With its solutions present in core global epicentres including the US, UK and India, Respondez acts as the global contact centre and international business processing brand of Spanco Limited.
Since its formation in 1995, Spanco has grown into one of the leading telecom systems integration and IT service companies. Employing more than 7000 people across the world, Spanco is an active player in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), with dedicated system integration and business process outsourcing (BPO) arms. In 2002, the company decided to leverage its expertise into the dynamic space of international contact centre management and BPO, thus the Respondez brand was created.
Combining its voice, live web chat and email capabilities with the expertise of its back office support staff, Respondez is able to provide customer care, sales and technical support services to improve user satisfaction and deliver increased sales, while at the same time reducing operational costs. Committed to migrating and managing its client’s business processes effectively, the company’s presence extends to a variety of industries including retail and e-commerce, financial services, communications and entertainment and gaming publishers.
Respondez’s communications clients represent leading global providers of satellite and digital cable, wireless, dial-up, digital subscriber line and cable internet access, and cellular service and equipment sales. These clients rely upon it to support their existing customers, while also cross-selling portfolios to deliver higher revenue and attach rates per customer.
It was in November 2010 that Spanco officially announced that it had put in place a comprehensive strategy to tap into the BPO opportunities present within Africa. Central to this plan was the leveraging of its segment specific expertise and its deep talent pool of English and French speaking employees in order to provide high quality services to potential African clients. Between 2011 and 2014, Spanco plans to invest around $20 million to create an infrastructure that will cater for the employment of approximately 10,000 people across the continent.
Arguably one of the more exciting developments to occur within Spanco’s short history within Africa was the decision taken by Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile phone firm, to award call centre contracts for its African operations. The second significant step in replicating Bharti Airtel’s hugely successful outsourcing model on the continent, the five-year contract is estimated to be worth around $500 million, with Spanco due to earn a significant percentage of this. The contract to provide customer services was the first of its kind to be introduced to Africa where the back-office processing industry is seen to be in the early stages of evolution.
Under the agreement, Bharti Airtel, which owns and operates the Zain brand in 16 African countries, will outsource core customer service functions such as call centres and back office operations as it prepares for the inevitable acceleration in growth throughout the region. Currently boasting more than 40 million customers across its African operations, Bharti Airtel is looking to increase this figure to 100 million by 2013.
Bharti Airtel’s decision to work with partners like Spanco, IBM and Tech Mahindra will enable its mobile customers to enjoy world class customer services, while said partners introduce best practices based on their own unique experiences of working with international organisations in the communications sector.
It is thought by many industry experts and insiders that the widespread adoption of the BPO model by Bharti Airtel across its operations will also bring tangible benefits to the development of the sector in each country by creating additional job opportunities and developing local talent. All three partners are also committed to providing the necessary services and infrastructure in each market that will build and sustain the skills, capabilities and resources that are acquired as a result of the contract.
Going forward, Spanco plans to utilise this contact centre contract to secure a larger foothold in the market for itself, through its Respondez brand. In the time since the contract was announced the company has entered into talks with at least three other large telecommunications businesses with the aim of provide similar services. Should its plans for the market come to fruition, Spanco anticipates its African employee headcount to increase from its current stated commitment of 2700 professionals, as part of its agreement with Bharti Airtel, to 5000 during the course of the next 12-to-18 months.
Due to the company seeing Africa as a huge untapped market for BPO work, including customer lifecycle management for telecommunication customers, and collections and credit counselling services for banking clients, Spanco continues to seek out potential employees that it can hire to serve other clients that it signs up with in the months to come.
The significant roles that the development of the telecommunications industry and the work of businesses like Respondez have had when it comes to the success of one of Africa’s more thriving sectors cannot be underplayed. For Respondez alone, the last 4000 employees that it has taken on are based on the continent. Statistics like this reinforce the belief that Africa’s presence on the global telecommunications stage will only go from strength to strength.
Written by Will Daynes, research by Richard Halfhide
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