This scenario could benefit SA on mid-to-administrative level call-centre work from the US, according to a report by research house Datamonitor.

The report’s authors, callcentre analyst Ri Pierce-Grove and outsourcing and offshoring analyst Peter Ryan, said cost pressures in the US were forcing outsourcers offshore.

Pierce-Grove said SA stood a better chance of securing this business than Canada, which was becoming too expensive relative to the falling US dollar.

"In a shrinking market, outsourcers are being forced to reinvent themselves by merging, partnering or competing with other types of companies in a bid to stay in the game and seize market share," Pierce-Grove said.

The South African government and businesses would do well to take advantage of this opportunity by luring US firms and outsourcers from other countries, the researchers said.

The country was well placed to grow its call-centre businesses because of the English-speaking populace and good technological infrastructure, said the UK-based Datamonitor team.

Some of the downsides, according to Ryan, were the fact that salaries of local call-centre agents were higher than those of Brazil, Egypt and India, and that South African telephony and technology costs were higher than Canada’s and Argentina’s.

Despite this, said Ryan, SA fared better than its rival in the call-centre market, India, and the emerging Egyptian market on telephony and technology costs.

It had been estimated that the local sector employed about 60000 to 80000 people of whom fewer than 10% were offshore agents. I-Net Bridge