TransUnion’s South Africa Global Capability Centre Starts Servicing U.S. Market

TransUnion’s South Africa Global Capability Centre (GCC) marked its formal opening ceremony a few days ago by announcing that it has started providing support to the company’s United States operations and customers, barely five months after starting operations.

The centre opened its virtual doors in March to support TransUnion’s global operations. It is investing heavily in local talent as it builds out a range of competencies across contact centre, business process management, technology support and data analytics roles.

It has since already started servicing the company’s Canadian business and customers, providing a range of support services in both French and English.

Speaking at the ceremony, TransUnion’s Executive Vice President of Global Operations, Eric Hess, hailed the value that the South Africa centre was delivering to the organisation, its clients and consumers.

“TransUnion has invested in the South African market for many years, and we’re excited to build on our commitment to the region and offer opportunities to South Africa’s best and brightest in our GCC. It plays a critical role in TransUnion’s global growth strategy, and it’s already bringing more solutions to more countries and is helping businesses, consumers and economies across the continent and the world,” said Hess.

The new centre is part of a wider initiative which saw TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre in Chennai, India, expand to the city of Pune. The Chennai centre, which launched in 2018, already employs more than 1,000 professionals.

South Africa GCC head Avesh Singh said the centre was looking to expand rapidly, both in terms of numbers and technology usage, as demand for innovative, skilled work continued to increase in TransUnion markets around the world.

“What’s important to note is that we’re not just a traditional contact centre. We’re doing a range of non-voice and back-office work, including project management, quality assurance, and data analytics. We’ve also integrated a range of new technology innovations, including the ability to provide asynchronous chat into the voice environment. Our virtual model means we’ve been able to scale at speed to accommodate the increased demands of the global markets we operate in,” said Singh.

Also attending the event, Ambassador Sadick Jaffer, from the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), said government had recognised BPO as a priority sector in South Africa and was in the process of rolling out a master plan, which would assist the sector in achieving its target of 100,000 additional jobs by 2023 and 500,000 by 2030.

“TransUnion’s GCC is providing important opportunities to South African youth, and increasing the pool of highly skilled young people in the country. The company’s operating model is highlighting what the country’s youth can do when they’re given a chance to shine on a global stage,” said Ambassador Jaffer.