CallingtheCape Highlights Newsletter - August 2006

SPECIAL AWARDS EDITION!!!

Dear Stakeholders,

This month we present you with our Special Awards Edition Newsletter giving you all the winners of the Annual CallingtheCape Awards.

Also featured are our upcoming site visits, the Annual CallingtheCape Stakeholders Forum and some interesting news.

If you have any suggestions or views that you would like to share please forward them to rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za.

(i) Site Visits (New!!!)

CallingtheCape will be hosting a series of high profile site visits to leading contact centre and BPO facilities in Cape Town. The purpose of the visits are to give the industry access to leading companies and in so-doing to spread best practice standards.

There's been much interest in these site visits and we can only accommodate members of CallingtheCape. Fifteen delegates will be given the opportunity on a first-come-first-serve basis. We will make every effort to accommodate BEE/SME companies. ONLY ONE DELEGATE PER COMPANY ALLOWED.

It will start off with a one hour tour of the facility focusing on:

  • Agent Retention
  • Team Leader Development
  • QA
  • Operations
  • Technology
  • Disaster Recovery

There will be a fifteen minute Q&A session at the end of the tour. We plan to have two more site visits for the remainder of 2006.

The dates are as follows:

  • Old Mutual - 19th September 2006 at 11h00am
  • The Phone House - 14th November 2006 at 11h00am

All information regarding site visits will be given to delegates closer to the time.

RSVP to Rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za . We need to be informed of cancellations at least two days before the event.

(ii) CallingtheCape Stakeholder's Forum
29th August 2006, 16h30 - 19h00
Doega Room, 12th Floor Waldorf Arcade, 80 St. George's Mall, Cape Town

This is an annual event where Stakeholders are invited to have their say and enjoy a glass of wine and snacks with us. It's also an ideal networking opportunity to meet other CallingtheCape Members, Goverment representatives and other Stakeholders.

We'll give you a brief update on the CallingtheCape Awards, our CADET programme, our boost in funding by government and the future of CallingtheCape and the BPO&O Industry in the Western Cap

(iii) Launch of OC2
17th August 2006, 16h30 - 19h30
2nd Floor, Nova Domus Building, 83 Voortrekker Road, Goodwood

Please join us in celebrating the fact that, as a self-financed BEE contact centre, we have survived the first two and a half years (growing from 10 seats in a small room to 60 seats on two floors) have a solid client base and have thus far delivered on our vision of providing a quality, value adding service to our clients.

RSVP to reply@oc2.co.za by no later than 17h00 on 10th August 2006.

(iv) Performance and Retention in Government Call Centres Conference by IQPC
23rd-25th October 2006
Johannesburg

This event is packed with practical examples and case studies from actual Government call centres, panel discussions, workshops and an impressive speaker line-up. If you are a public sector official, this event will provide first-hand information on how to effectively implement and manage a call centre in your environment. Gain insight into issues such as retaining and motivating your staff, and find out how to cater for disabled employees in your call centre. Contact Nathaly on 011-669-5034 or email nathaly.nortje@iqpc.co.za.

PROBLEMS billing your call costs and do you have agents abusing your phones???

DIGILOGIC distribute a software suite called ASPIVIA that accurately bills your call costs, specialising in environments with many different suppliers charging in several different currencies.

"This is the only solution that we have found that enables us to manage our complex Telecoms environment, report & control on abuse and bill our campaigns accurately. Digilogic's value added services are hugely beneficial and with our expansion into Durban and Johannesburg, we know we can rely on Digilogic to help us expand confidently keeping tabs on our costs." - Paul Oosthuizen, Financial Director Dialogue Group.

The software is also able to identify personal calls and abusive and fraudulent calls made by agents and reports on them. The result is a drop in Telecoms spend across the board.

Please contact Sean on sean@digilogic.co.za  or call 021 434 6712 or 083 657 3097 for more information.

To advertise contact Rhomeez Hendricks.

This month's new members are:

If you are interested in becoming a member of CallingtheCape please contact Rhomeez Hendricks.

(i) Call centre industry stars f ted at annual banquet

Sanlam, Woolworths, Old Mutual and Lufthansa GlobalTelesales have once again emerged as leaders of the Western Cape contact centre industry, each scooping two prizes at this year's CallingtheCape Annual Awards banquet on Saturday August 5.

Kathy Heynes of Woolworths was named Agent of the Year, Old Mutual's Vanessa Curnow-Fortune is Supervisor of the Year and Sanlam's Hennie Lange is Manager of the Year. All three are now finalists in the national awards to be announced by the SA Contact Centre Community (SACCCOM) later in the year.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, in his keynote speech at the banquet, acknowledged the industry's people for their commitment and hard work, which have helped to build a booming industry. The banquet was also attended by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille and the province's Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development Tasneem Essop.

"We're very proud that the industry is doing its bit to meet the Province's job creation goals," said CallingtheCape Executive Director Luke Mills afterwards. "We're especially proud that thanks to the industry support for our Cadet scheme, we're providing a route to employment for people who have never worked before. We are confident that 90% of our trainees will find sustainable jobs in the industry."

The banquet, sponsored by VoxTelecom, Fusion Outsourcing, Spescom and the Dialogue Group, also acknowledged the industry's leading companies in several categories. Lufthansa GlobalTelesales was named the International Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centre of the year as well as being acknowledged for the best community spirit. Sanlam Life was named for the best training programme and the best non-technological innovation, 3iSolutions for the best technological innovation and Woolworths for the best outbound campaign. Old Mutual Service technology and administration was named Service Provider of the Year and Emmanuels was named HR Service Provider of the Year.

Please visit www.callingthecape.org.za/awards_gallery.htm to view the photos of the Awards evening - photos will be posted up by Thursday 10th August 2006.

(ii) Vote of Thanks to all Sponsors of the Awards

CallingtheCape would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank all this year's sponsors of the Annual Awards.

The following companies are this year's Platinum Sponsors:

  • Callforce Direct
  • Telkom

The following companies are this year's Gold Sponsors:

  • Datapro
  • The Dialogue Group
  • Fusion Outsourcing
  • Spescom

Silver Sponsors:

  • 3iSolutions
  • Connectivity
  • Kelly
  • Lufthansa Globaltelesales
  • OC2
  • Old Mutual
  • Storm
  • Wesgro
  • Woolworths

Prize Sponsors

  • Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel
  • Emmanuels Advance
  • Lufthansa GlobalTelesales
  • Merchants
  • Old Mutual
  • Quest
  • Woolworths

Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to a very exciting future together.
(iii) CallingtheCape seeks Talent Development Manager

CallingtheCape wishes to recruit a self-motivated and goal orientated Talent Development Manager (TDM) to head up our Talent Development Project Team in Cape Town.

The successful individual will be responsible for setting up, implementing and managing Skills Development & Learnership Initiatives including the roll-out of our BPO&O Job Centre Network, based in Cape Town.

We require an individual with a sound knowledge of and at least five years experience in:

  • Organisational Development and Human Resources
  • Call Centre experience within the BPO&O Sector at Management Level
  • Training and development as an ETDP practitioner with Learnership Project Management experience
  • Assessment and Moderation practices
  • SAQA, NQF, SETA and NGO Structures

The candidate must also have a sound and functional knowledge of the legislation governing skills development - including, but not limited to SDL Act, SD Act, BCE Act and EE Act.

Package is subject to experience but will be in the region of R350k per annum total cost to company.

Please forward your CV to Luke Mills, the Executive Director of CallingtheCape at luke@callingthecape.org.za .

All applications must reach CallingtheCape no later than Monday, 14th August 2006. Interested parties must submit a letter of motivation to support your application in line with the set criteria. CallingtheCape is a diverse organization that fully subscribes to the principles and values of Employment Equity.

(iv)CallingtheCape Leadership Development Programme

A CallingtheCape Leadership Development workshop was held on 26th July 2006 at the Old Mutual Business School in Pinelands, Cape Town and focused on the management of employee relationships and dealt specifically with performance management within the context of South African labour legislation. The content was aimed at team leaders and aspiring team leaders and delegates gained a solid practical grasp of performance management and labour law, reinforced by industrial theatre, presentations by industry thought leaders, and a half day workshop.

Speakers included Margie Middleton, Stephen Beukes, and Pure Basic Industrial Theatre.

The workshop was a great success and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank all delegates and sponsors.

For more info on future workshops please contact Nicky Floris at nicky@callingthecape.org.za .

(v) Investing in the future Human Capital at the Learning Cape Festival

The Western Cape is developing a clear vision to become a "learning province" where people of all ages and levels of education, from rural and urban areas, and from all sectors of society grow to appreciate the value of lifelong learning - at home, at school, in the community and at work.

CallingtheCape has embraced this vision and have, for the second year, participated in the vision to become a "learning province" and more importantly to offer young people the opportunity to gain knowledge to help them to make career choices within the BPO&O industry specifically.

The LCF is a great opportunity for the private sector to create linkages between their respective sectors talent development initiatives and future human capita. This year presented a whole new spectrum of exciting challenges and our sponsors Kelly, Emmanuels, Fusion and Flexi Cell ensured that we made use of every possible opportunity to part knowledge with learners on all levels to enable them to make informed career decisions.

One of the highlights this year was twenty four CallingtheCape CADET learners who inspired future learners with their stories around learnerships and how they have benefited from, not only the CADET programme, but also the opportunity to work for our hosts in the different areas. Well done to our learners. We are very proud of the professional way they have managed their important roles at the festival.

The LCF team will meet shortly to start with the planning of next year's festival. We will have a range of exciting ideas and would like to invite all our member companies to become part of the vision to create, not only a learning industry, but also a learning province!

Have a great month.

Rhomeez Hendricks
Communications Officer
Telephone No: +27(0) 21 487 8655 : Switchboard No: +27(0) 21 487 8600
Fax No: +27(0) 21 422 3744 : Mobile No: +27(0) 82 927 8021
Email address: rhomeez@callingthecape.org.za  Website: www.callingthecape.org.za 


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