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South Africa is rising on the world stage as a top destination for outsourced business services. That is the message from Andy Searle, CEO of Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA), as global companies look to new markets for skilled talent, reliable delivery and cost efficiencies.

BPESA, a not-for-profit industry association, represents the country's global business services sector and works to coordinate industry players, promote the region's strengths and stimulate local job creation, particularly among unemployed youth.

"Our purpose really is to market South Africa to the world, especially those sourcing markets that have a strong requirement for English language skills," Searle said. "It's about showing the attraction and value proposition of South Africa as a place to offshore their business processes."

South Africa's emergence as a sought-after outsourcing destination has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As lockdowns disrupted service centres in rival countries, South Africa stood out as a dependable location, Searle explained. "South Africa, with a strong collaborative relationship between government and business stakeholders, designated the outsourcing sector as an essential service provider. Consequently, the delivery of essential and critical services continued through our lockdown without disruption."

That resilience, he said, has demonstrated the country's dependability in a crisis, elevating its profile among global buyers. "This is a defining moment for the global business services sector in terms of location strategy, procurement strategies and revisiting what is important from an operating model point of view," he added.

COVID-19 has prompted many companies to rethink both their risk exposure and operational models. Searle noted there has been "a diversification or an unbundling of the high levels of concentration" seen previously. Organisations are now seeking a geographic spread of outsourced work. "The operating models are changing as well - no longer is work all done at the office. It's about supporting different types of work through hybrid models of working, both on-premise and from home, while maintaining quality of service," he said.

For business process outsourcing - especially finance and accounting (F&A) and collections - South Africa holds a number of advantages. "South Africa has a wealth of financial skills and a very large domestic market. The domestic global business services market in South Africa consists of more than 200,000 people, and a large portion of that is financial services related. Our export services market is larger than 65,000 people, again with a fair portion in financial services," Searle said.

Research from 2019 showed that finance leaders rank South Africa in the top five preferred locations for offshored F&A work. "South Africa has been ranked seven places ahead of the Philippines and sits just behind India in second place as an offshore destination, which is really quite significant," he said.

The strengths are not just in headcount. The World Economic Forum places South Africa among the top 20 countries for the strength and innovation of its financial services sector. "We have world-class strengths in financial modelling and analytics, an empathy-driven and outcome-based collections culture, and our operating costs are significantly lower than countries such as Australia - up to fifty percent lower in some cases," Searle said.

Searle also highlighted a lesser-known strength in actuarial talent. "South Africa has almost six times more actuaries than India does. For a smaller country, we've got depth of skills in certain key areas. Finance and accounting is just one of those strengths," he added.

The country's growing reputation for software development is also drawing the world's major brands. Firms like eBay, Vodafone, Avis, Lloyd's of London and Deloitte are now offshoring software development work into South Africa, joining international companies already present, such as Tech Mahindra and Tata.

"There are a number of reasons for that," Searle said. "We've got a really good talent pool of skilled computer scientists, software engineers and analysts who are culturally aligned with Australia and the UK, speaking native-level English. More than 86,000 new STEM graduates enter the system every year, ensuring a steady stream of talent."

South African companies, he noted, offer very flexible and agile engagement models, from team augmentation to traditional outsourcing - "very adaptable to what the particular business requirements are."

Lower operating costs are a further attraction. "A junior software developer in South Africa would cost the equivalent of 18,000 Australian dollars per year, and a solution architect about 95,000 Australian dollars. When you compare that with the cost of the same skills elsewhere, and combine it with the quality and reliability, there is a big attraction," he explained.

Compliance and data protection are also top tier. "We've got very strong data protection laws and standards, not only driven by our own banking sector but also by the fact we must comply with international regulations like GDPR. In fact, South Africa has been instrumental in formulating ISO standards for global business services," Searle said.

COVID-19, he continued, has accelerated the rush to digitise. "Everyone is under such pressure to digitise and automate. With talent shortages elsewhere, where do you go? We do have the capacity to meet those challenges - something not well understood about South Africa," he said.

To spread awareness, BPESA is leading a series of webinars in Australia in partnership with local organisations, highlighting case studies and the value South Africa brings to international companies. Topics cover customer service excellence, F&A and collections outsourcing, software development, and how COVID-19 has changed location strategies.

"We really look forward to the opportunity of engaging with executives in the Australian and New Zealand markets to share more about the tremendous value that South Africa has to offer," Searle said.

He hopes the partnership approach will prove fruitful. "Perhaps when we speak again, we'll be talking about many more case studies and with great results to share," he said.