GBS WORLD NEWS | WEEK 2 | OCTOBER 2022

Community members in Soweto, South Africa, celebrated the launch of Merchants contact centre which will catalyse much-needed job creation opportunities. Situated in Soweto’s Jabulani precinct, the contact center is in the same township that housed both former President Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who both had visions of greater empowerment and youth development for the township. This initiative by Merchants will strengthen the township’s circular economy by tapping into local Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprise (SMME) services and subsequently introducing new businesses to the growing precinct.

Tech leaders in Canada are appalled by the CAN$54 million price tag for the development of the ArriveCAN mobile application, a border control platform operated by the Government of Canada. They explained that most apps are developed for under CAN$1 million, while others questioned why the government did not use a local app developer, instead of turning to 23 separate contractors and an unknown number of additional subcontractors.

In line with evolving global hybrid working models, Amazon will be closing all but one of its US-based contact centers to save on real estate costs. All affected employees will be shifted to a work-from-home (WFH) structure. The contact centers that will be closed include those in Kennewick, Washington, Lexington, Kentucky and Phoenix. The call center that may remain open will most likely be in either Huntington, West Virginia, or Houston.

Over in Europe, ResultsCX, a leading provider of Customer Experience Management (CXM) services to global companies, has announced its expansion into the UK and continental Europe through the acquisition of 60K, a top Bulgarian CXM company. The establishment of ResultsCX’s European headquarters in London marks a key milestone in the company’s growth journey.

The Philippines will have its sixth TDCX, Inc. office in the city of Iloilo, increasing the digital customer experience (CX) solutions provider’s capacity to service global English end-markets in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The expansion comes at a time where the firm has added 25 new clients since January 2022, including a leading regional airline and one of Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platforms.

In general news, the 2022 Front Office Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services Market report, published by Industry Research Biz, has been released, covering market dynamics, size, share, trends, development constraints, technical advancements and competitive landscape. Current and future developments of top organizations are unveiled, such as those in IBM Global Services, Transcosmos, WNS, MicroSourcing and KMC Solutions. All major vertical industries, such as BFSI, retail and consumer goods, telecommunications and healthcare, are covered in the report.