GBS WORLD NEWS | WEEK 3 | OCTOBER 2021

In North America, globally renowned video teleconferencing provider, Zoom, has decided to abort its acquisition of Five9, a leading cloud contact centre platform, as Five9 shareholders rejected the deal. This would have been the second-biggest tech deal of the year, valued at US$14,7 billion, where Zoom had the opportunity to rapidly increase its capabilities after its stock boom during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elsewhere in America, business services and CX organization, Concentrix, established its Lingualab innovation, an initiative that provides sales and after service support to customers in their language of choice. Implemented for its e-commerce clients, Lingualab’s ability to engage in the native language of the customer reduces frustrations for both parties; therefore, increasing customer satisfaction and retention rates.

Meanwhile in Singapore, Webhelp, has appointed Andrew Quake as the new Chief Growth Officer for the APAC region. As a new role to increase investment in the APAC region, Andrew Quake will be based in Singapore where most of Webhelp’s regional technology, entertainment, and e-commerce clients are located. Andrew brings over 20 years’ experience of building and growing new companies, recently serving as the CEO of a Vietnamese digital loyalty and e-payments start-up, TapTap.

The Colombian capital of Bogotá is to receive a 1,500-job boost to its local economy with Transcom’s operations in the city. The organization is looking for Colombian talent with multilingual capabilities to serve the customers of four global clients. Strong customer service credentials were the primary factor of the global CX giant in choosing Colombia as a service delivery location.

The Egyptian BNPL industry is set to experience growth gains of 144.1% on an annual basis, reaching US$193,6 million by the end of 2021. The solid performance of the industry is supported by increases in the country’s e-commerce penetration, as well as market disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The North African nation will continue to see growth in this sector, where it is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.7% between 2021 to 2028. The dollar valuation of the BNPL Gross Merchandise Value in Egypt will grow from US$79,3 million in 2020 to US1,9 billion in 2028.  

More good news in Africa, as Google has pledged to invest US$1 billion as part of its digital transformation initiative on the continent. A new subsea cable, equity investments in start-ups, low-interest loans for SMMEs, and skills training are some of the actions as part of Google’s aim to increase connectivity and build digital businesses across the continent.

In India, WNS has been recognized in the ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Finance & Accounting (F&A) Outsourcing Services 2021 Report as a global leader in the Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Order-to-Cash (O2C) and Record-to-Report (R2R) categories, due to the organization’s digital F&A solutions. The organization’s F&A expertise, domain-centric approach, and embedded analytics with state-of-the-art tools and technologies were highlighted as some of the main factors in WNS achieving global-leader-status in the ISG report.

Another recognition of global leadership was announced in Scotland, where Glasgow-based customer service specialist, Go-centric, has been formally accredited as a real Living Wage employer. The company provides a minimum per hour wage of £9.50 in the UK or £10.85 in its London operation, wage rates that are significantly higher than the national minimum wage of £8.91 per hour. The real Living Wage considers the actual costs of living and is the only wage rate in the U.K. that does this.

Another report of global interest has been released. The GBS World Competitiveness Index, compiled by Knowledge Executive ranks countries according to their GBS delivery capabilities based on interviews with global enterprise executives and buyers. Extensive survey data along with other key influencing factors, such as ICT capabilities, political and economic stability, youth populations, and multilingual capabilities, were used to build the index and rankings. So far, the rankings for the African region have been released, with the results for Eastern Europe, Central and Latin America and Asia Pacific planned to be disclosed in 2021.

Past GBS World Weekly News
We covered notable industry developments in previous editions of the weekly blogs and newsletters including iBex opening its fifth site in Jamaica. Webhelp’s announcement of its intent to acquire OneLink, the expansion of Ascensos in Africa, the partnership between Outworx and Concentrix, and the acquisition of Altron Bytes People Solutions by iSON Xperiences.

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