Everything Everywhere, a UK-based communications company, has announced the opening of its new customer service centre in Cape Town with the promise of\u00a0190 new jobs by the end of July and a potential for further expansion.<\/p>\n
Everything Everywhere provides mobile and fixed-broadband communications services to more than 27 million customers through the Orange and T-Mobile brands.<\/p>\n
International BPO company, Merchants, a Dimension Data company, will manage the centre on behalf of Everything Everywhere. \u201cWe have been designing, building and operating contact centres in South Africa since 1997 and this is another significant milestone in positioning South Africa as a competitive destination for BPO investment\u201d, said Adam Foster, CEO of Merchants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Merchants is most excited about is the opportunity that this investment creates for youth development in South Africa,\u201d Foster added.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the launch, Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille stressed the government\u2019s commitment to creating jobs and the importance of driving investment to the region. \u201cAs government we should look at the BPO sector as a success story and replicate the lessons learnt in other sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Western Cape Government realises the importance of skills development in the sector and we are committed to ensuring that we facilitate a skills supply that matches the demand of BPO investors looking at the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister of finance, economic development and tourism in the Western Cape, Alan Winde also spoke of the sector\u2019s importance. \u201cThe BPO sector is responsible for around 33,500 jobs and has a key role to play in the region with regard to job creation. More importantly it offers opportunities to our youth, where unemployment is the highest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackie O\u2019Leary chief customer officer for Everything Everywhere talked about the importance of the new centre in the company\u2019s overall growth strategy and discussed how it was key to maintaining their customer base.<\/p>\n
\u201cCape Town is a beautiful place to work but more importantly it matched our objectives as a business,\u201d added O\u2019Leary. \u201cThis was assisted by positive support from both local and national government and the availability of quality facilities and infrastructure. There was also an availability of skills, which was added to by a positive workforce attitude and linguistic capabilities amongst the staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne out of every two people in the UK uses our services every day of their lives. When required they rely on us and our most important people to assist them, our customer service agents,\u201d O\u2019 Leary said.<\/p>\n
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