GBS WORLD NEWS | WEEK 2 | JANUARY 2022

Social media was abuzz towards the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 with the news from Jamaica that Transparent BPO has opened its first delivery site in the MJS Technology Park located in the Caribbean nation’s capital, Kingstown. This strategic move is a win for local jobseekers, as the global BPO contact center outsourcing provider will be recruiting 2,000 frontline workers in its new Jamaican operation. As part of its hub-and-spoke working model, Transparent BPO will be offering additional work-from-home opportunities.

Egypt will be a leading economy in terms of economic growth among most emerging markets and regional peers over the next two years, reaching an annual growth rate of 5.3%, according to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Monthly Outlook by FitchSolutions. Higher rates of investments are the primary economic growth driver in Egypt, along with strong private consumption and a recovery in services exports. These economic growth indicators position Egypt’s GBS value proposition strongly, providing buyers and operators opportunities to attain a share in this growth boom.

Mumbai-based bank, RBL Bank, has announced its partnership with Google to drive the bank’s CX strategy and more effectively serve its large customer base through its digital platform, Abacus 2.0. Improved customer data management and analytics is the key objective in the collaboration, enabling effective cross-selling and significantly reducing customer acquisition costs. RBL Bank also aims to increase its customer base from 4 million to over 12 million, using Google Cloud’s secure and scalable infrastructure for seamless customer onboarding.

IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) expenditure hit record levels across Europe during 2021, reaching US$26,5 billion, growing by 23% compared to the previous year, according to tech advisory firm, the Information Services Group (ISG). As-a-service contracts was one of the granular services that achieved significant growth, growing 41% and reaching US$12,6 billion in revenue. ISG also reported that cloud-based services continue to narrow the gap on traditional IT outsourcing.

The Americas also experienced attractive gains in its ITO and BPO market, reaching US$41,7 billion, achieving 27% annual growth, according to ISG. However, demand flattened in the fourth quarter of 2021, where annual contract value (ACV) fell slightly from US$11,6 billion to US$11,5 billion. Just as experienced in Europe, cloud-based services were some of the main beneficiaries of the increased growth, as organizations look to cut costs, improve customer experience (CX) and be more agile. 

In general news, AI-driven automation and competition between South Africa, Egypt and Jamaica for 2022’s most-favored offshore CX delivery destination are among the top five CX predictions for 2022, in a recent blog by Ryan Strategic Advisory. The other top predictions for the CX realm include M&A activity being defined by mega-vendor consolidation, Central and Eastern Europe being the most coveted CX delivery region and content moderation being a key BPO differentiator.