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Business Reporter

THE Econet group yesterday said it has a new standalone “business process outsourcing” (BPO) unit called OmniContact that will offer local and foreign businesses a wide range of specialised outsourced services.

The new product is designed to free businesses to focus on their core activities as well as reduce their capital and operational costs. The outsourced services include product sales, contact centre support, loyalty and retention programmes, social media analytics, subscription renewals and a host of other services.

Speaking at the launch of the service in Harare, Econet Zimbabwe Group chief executive officer, Mr Douglas Mboweni, said the OmniContact would leverage digital technology to help organisations deliver enhanced customer experience and manage their costs. 

“We are excited to unveil a service that will help big and small companies, private and public enterprises, both local or based outside Zimbabwe, to allow the OmniContact to handle those customer support aspects of their businesses for which they have no expertise,” Mr Mboweni said.

“Using its digital platforms and a pool of highly trained personnel, and leveraging best-in-class customer experience management technology and software. The OmniContact will let organisations increase their competitive advantage by focusing on their core activities — whether it’s manufacturing, hotel and tourism, retailing, insurance, banking and financial services or whatever sector of the economy they operate in.”

He said in an increasingly digital and competitive global marketplace, the outsourcing model used by the OmniContact was an efficient and proven way of managing business processes.

Mr Mboweni made reference to a 2018 survey by accounting and management firm Deloitte, which revealed that in order to gain a competitive advantage, 84 percent of pioneering companies will outsource their services.

OmniContact head Mr Otis Makahamadze said the centre was built on scalable technology and would offer outsourced services tailored to suit client needs.

“Our platform is scalable and designed to meet the growing need for customers with increasingly sophisticated personal preferences…for organisations to manage costs while improving the customer experience,” said Mr Makahamadze. 

He said the OmniContact would offer a wide range of services to both local and foreign-based clients across multiple sectors. 

“We are bringing to the market a wide variety of services that include local and international product sales, contact centre support, loyalty and retention programmes, social media analytics, as well as subscription renewals and collections, among others,” said Makahamadze.

He added that the OmniContact had already garnered a global client and customer portfolio that spans the USA, Dubai, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Angola, Kenya and South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Mr Makahamadze said customer confidentiality would be of critical importance for the OmniContact, saying the organisation would observe rigorous, international, carrier-grade data protection and privacy standards and practices to ensure that clients’ data was secure.