As exchange rates and economies change around the world, so too does the list of countries vying for offshore call centre and back office outsourcing work. The Fiji Islands has managed to build on its position as a strategic location for customer centric contact centre operations, attracting both foreign and domestic investment to promote the industry’s modest, but sustained growth.
Fiji was awarded the accolade of being the Offshoring Destination of the Year 2014 by the European Outsourcing Association (EOA). This followed in the footsteps of previous winners South Africa and Morocco. This award officially announced Fiji’s presence as a leading BPO destination.
Fiji’s main driver for contact centre suitability was the deregulation of Fiji’s telecommunications markets, particularly the opening of international telecom access on 17th July 2009. In November 2000, the Southern Cross fibre-optic cable was launched, linking Fiji directly to Australia, New Zealand and the US, enabling high bandwidth capacity needed for multiple call centres and high volume data transfers. The Southern Cross fibre optic cable effectively placed Fiji on par with any other competing location globally. With first world telecommunications infrastructure in place; well educated staff with native English language skills which are easily understood by customers in USA, Canada and the United Kingdom, Fiji has achieved a competitive position in the global contact centre market. In addition, the compelling business case for Fiji is an irresistible cost advantage, which offers Australian, New Zealand, the UK and the USA companies’ more than 50% savings when compared to delivering a contact centre or back office operation onshore.
Fiji has managed to secure and attract renowned ICT and BPO investors, including Mindpearl, HP, Dell, IBM, Compaq, Acer and Cisco Systems. William Pattison, CEO of Mindpearl had this to say, ‘We recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary in Fiji. We opened our international contact centre in Fiji in 2009 to complement our global locations. I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions we made as a business and today we support 14 international brands from Fiji alone and we’re still growing. There’s no stopping Fiji as a contact centre location of choice, because the people are naturally adept to the customer service industry. Customer service has evolved beyond scripts, because the customer demands more. Companies that are not concerned about brand protection and the customer experience cannot compete in a customer driven market, as far as I’m concerned. Our clients know they are getting a warm, authentic customer experience and that’s why we have been so successful here.’