To understand this discussion fully we need to explain in a lay man terms what outsourcing means. That will give us a spring board to understanding why this brilliant concept has so far failed in Africa. Imagine Innoson Motors were receiving too many calls from customers, that their customer service agents are overwhelmed or they do not have the space to house their customer service agents. They decide to move the department to an outside company who can help them handle customer interactions. The company they have made contacts with is an outsourcing company and the process is called OUTSOURCING.

In the light of how the future of work is set up, and how much the way we do business has changed in recent years, it is safe to say that outsourcing will be the core of our business processes. But why has Africa failed in this front with all its mass number of cheap labour force? Let us highlight 5 reasons why Africa has not been able to take advantage of the gap in the investment market.

1) Lack Of Knowledge About Outsourcing

People tend to go more with what they know more than what they have no knowledge about. Same is true with outsourcing. Just a mention of the word on its own and a lot of people in Africa look confused as to what you are talking about. You need long explanations before people will even get the idea of it. But this has been a system that has been inn existence in Africa from time. For example, you own a hail saloon when you do weaves, someone walks in to do braids and you call your neighbour to help you provide the service. You have just outsourced the business to your neighbour. It is actually that simple. We have developed new ways of making outsourcing more easy and have included a lot more technology into it to meet up with the demand of changing times.

2) Jack Of All Trades

A lot of us in Africa believe that we can be able to do anything, even people who have no basic knowledge about business, open and operate them without consulting. A lot of friends have lost money before they seek direction on there seemingly brilliant business idea. Every business has its main focus or area of expertise. Outsourcing affords you the ability to concentrate on those areas while the other areas are given proper attention by other more qualified professionals. With good organisation and planning, it must be acknowledged that some businesses will be able to take care of all the processes involved without the need for outsourcing. To ensure customer satisfaction, most businesses in Africa are crying out for professional outsourcing companies to help them in carrying out some of their processes and ensuring customer satisfaction.

3) Security

Outsourcing involve a lot of data movement from the parent company to the outsourced company. This movement passes thru different means as it occurs frequently. There are dangers that data can be lost or enter into untrusted hands. The need for the right people to have access to the right data on the part of the outsourced company is paramount. To mitigate that, modern outsourcing companies use encryption technology, assign permissions to staff and even employ a data manager to train staff on how data should be handled. The manager also make review on data security to make sure that there are no bridges. At Top 100 we got all our clients covered when it comes to security.

4) Lack Of Large Business Ventures

The bigger the business, the more the need for sectors to be outsourced. Over the years, Africa has had a few of these large corporations, meaning that the sectors of the business can be handled in-house without needing an outsourcing company. Big businesses such as Apple, Facebook, BT, TalkTalk etc. all have their customer service department outsourced to external countries so that they can reduce cost while concentrating on their core business areas. As Africa enter into the new phases of its development and larger business begin to spring up. There is great need for outsourcing companies to be on ground to help with this development and thats where we come in.

5) Mindset

In Africa its always been our way of life to try and do all the task involved in a process by ourself so that we can keep all the gains. A closer look at this mindset actually ends up doing us a de-service as it does not profit us in the long run. The mindset that we can not delegate duties has plagued Africa for far too long. Distribution of labour and services has been the way forward for far too long for us not to tap into that and improve the way we work.

In Conclusion

The future of work is set in such a way that we need to make better use of outsourcing companies. The customer is becoming more right than ever, so the need for customer satisfaction is increasing on a daily. This is why at T0p100 we offer all round training to all our staff on customer satisfaction. We take the whole customer experience to a whole new level. Get in contact today for any outsourcing needs you might have. We offer outsourcing services in HR, Office Admin and Most importantly Customer Service. We are here to work with you.