Bharti Airtel works on outsourcing African operations

Bharti Airtel has selected IBM , Tech Mahindra and Spanco as partners to drive customer service across 16 African countries. An agreement is expected to be finalised soon.

Under the agreement Bharti Airtel, which owns and currently operates the Zain brand in 16 countries across Africa, will outsource core customer service functions such as call centres and back office as it prepares for significant growth in the region. The mobile telecommunications operator currently counts over 40 million customers across its African operations and is targeting to achieve 100 million by 2013.

The widespread adoption of the business process outsourcing (BPO) model by Bharti Airtel across its operations will also have tangible benefits for development of the sector in each country, create additional job opportunities and develop local talent. The partners will provide services in each market that will sustain and build skills, capabilities and resources.

Bharti Airtel is expecting that the outsourcing of customer service operations will play a key role in making the operator competitive in Africa as it focuses on making mobile communications affordable and available across markets.

Currently over 4,000 people are employed in Africa supporting Bharti Airtel’s customer service operations. Going forward the number of people employed in managing the operator’s customer service functions will increase as Bharti Airtel expands its network and customer base.

Bharti Airtel has operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.