ZaiLab Launches Contact Centre Blueprint to Alleviate Poverty

On Thursday 8 March 2018, contact centre software company ZaiLab launched its ground-breaking job-creation blueprint in the community of Delft, South Africa.

The project comprises a technologically advanced contact centre created to train and employ contact centre agents from the area.

The project was created in collaboration with the Zoë Incubation Center in Delft, run by pastor Charles George’s Home of Compassion Ministries, which employs and up-skills residents in an effort to alleviate unemployment in the area.

ZaiLab CEO Nour Addine Ayyoub was inspired by pastor George’s work, and made a deal. “I said, when fibre is installed in Delft, I will build you a world-class contact centre,” said Ayyoub.

True to his word, one year later, team ZaiLab mobilised to refurbish, outfit and revolutionise the Zoë Incubation Center. This included providing custom-designed workpods and furniture created in-house by ZaiLab’s industrial design team, as well as the company’s cloud-based software.

“Cloud-based technology has changed the way contact centres do business,” says Ayyoub.

“With ZaiLab’s software, anyone can set up a contact centre any time, anywhere – all that’s needed is an internet connection.”

Ayyoub explains that with his company’s consumption-based pricing model, clients are charged per transaction, not per seat.“You only pay for the features you use. There are no licence fees. No start-up costs. Businesses of any size can access the software without huge capital outlay and the risk of long-term contracts. The contact centre saves on their bottom line and the agents save on travel costs.”

The idea behind the collaborative project is to train and employ agents from the community, creating much-needed employment, and enabling resident agents to go into business for themselves as home-based agents.

An impoverished neighbourhood in Cape Town, South Africa, Delft struggles with poverty, crime and a living standard far lower than should be the case. Many residents travel long distances to work in contact centres in the CBD.

“With our blueprint, we will in effect have created a huge agent marketplace from one incubation centre,” says Ayyoub.

“In South Africa we have a huge competitive advantage. Our agents are natural English speakers. That creates a huge opportunity for our agents who can now market themselves to every single English-speaking contact centre in the world.”

Not only can this blueprint be replicated anywhere, but countries like South Africa can finally compete with big outsource markets like Philippines, which is known as the call centre capital of the world.

Five core ingredients form the basis of the Reimagine Delft project:

• An incubation centre that trains agents
• Solid internet infrastructure
• Furniture and hardware
• Contact-centre software
• A willing BPO client

“Imagine if we could replicate this model in any rural area that is overpopulated and riddled with high unemployment. The social advantage is that agents can work closer to home. It results in massive job creation and community upliftment,” says Ayyoub.

“ZaiLab wants to disrupt the way people think about contact centres and make a huge social impact while we do it. This is the future I want for the contact centre.”