C.a.T.S moves into the call centre industry
Computer Assisted Telephony Systems (CaTS), the telephony IT specialist, is expanding into the call centre industry, following the signing of a distribution deal with Portuguese-based Collab, one of the world’s leading call centre specialist software providers.
Collab’s OneContact call centre solution is regarded as one of the leading call centre solutions in Europe. Johan Grobler, MD of CaTS, said he believes the OneConctact solution is “well suited to Africa”.
“We derive 80% of our revenue from African states, like the DRC, Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania and we believe this call centre solution is ideal for these countries, including South Africa. One of the problems we have faced, as a call centre destination, is our high telecommunications costs. But the recently installed undersea Seacom cable, which links countries like Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya – and dramatically cuts communications costs – is making SA a more viable call centre destination. This is one of the reasons we have diversified into the call centre market. But we will not just be focusing on SA, we will be leveraging off our growing client base in the rest of Africa.”
Grobler said the revenue stream from the new call centre diversification could add up to 20% to the company’s revenue during the next 12-18 months.
“We are telephony experts. This is an extension to our expertise. And, yes, I believe SA has a future as a call centre destination.”
He said maneuvering into the call centre market is not a “short term” goal. “The call centre market, in terms of breaking deals, is more long term. You can work on a client for up to 12 months. But there is certainly potential, locally, and in other African countries, where we already have a growing foothold through our telephony solutions, with companies like Zain and Vodacom.”
OneContact is an IP-based Multimedia Contact Centre software solution that offers full multimedia contact management across voice, video and instant messaging. Engineered using the SIP standard, it offers cutting edge contact centre functionality without the hardware and software costs and implementation timeframes associated with traditional PABX-based proprietary solutions.
