By bizn_fun 
UK accountancy firm Cooper Parry is one British company that has outsourced work to South Africa. It turned to South African outsourcing finance firms Makosi and PKF Octagon to fill hundreds of roles during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gemma Edwards, a partner at Cooper Parry and its head of transformation and business services, says the company was so impressed with its South African partners that it recently opened an office of its own in the country. This now has 60 team members, including both Mr Dywili and Mr Wheeler.
Ms Edwards says the South African employees “have become an extension of our UK teams”. She adds: “They join the same calls as us… it’s not them and us – we’re one global team.”
UK call-centre firm Ventrica, which works with brands such as shoemaker Clarks, fashion chain New Look and McDonald’s, opened an operation in South Africa in 2022. Around 30% of its workforce is now based there, with plans to grow this to 40%.
Ventrica’s chief executive Iain Banks says that its cost-conscious clients are happy for their call-centre operations to be based in South Africa, while others believe that their business is safer remaining in the UK.
“For example, there’s a FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] brand we move with,” says Mr Banks. “And if I were to embark on a conversation about South Africa, they would march out the door straight away.”
That may change though, as more and more highly educated South Africans enter the industry. That is certainly what Mr Joseph anticipates, as the Western Cape government plans to work more closely with universities to make curriculums a better fit for what outsourcing industry employers need.