Leveraging digital developments in all industries

confined to sci-fi movies.

In the world of retail and e-commerce, particularly when it comes to customer interaction with a contact centre, the effects – and indeed, the benefits – of these developments are apparent.

No longer is one restricted to phone calls with high call volumes and endless queues: information is more easily accessible through digital platforms, such as a website, e-mail or the increasingly popular chatbot.

Chatbots have long been used to answer simple and frequently asked questions. Yet even the chatbot is evolving, making way for the more intelligent digital personal assistant.

Voice activation and text to speech conversions have become increasingly sophisticated, enabling devices to provide useful and accurate information in a format that is most convenient and quicker: simply ask a question out loud and Siri, Alexa or Cortana will provide the answer.

For businesses, and in particular contact centres, this means that the role of the contact centre agent can evolve along with the technology. The need for agents to deal with the more mundane, clerical functions is being eliminated, making space for what is being termed “super agents” – skilled and well-trained individuals who are equipped and ready to deal with the more complex queries.

Not only does the technology free up agents to be more effective, but the possibilities for streamlined processes through voice biometrics, and improving customer service through compiling a greater knowledge base, are endless.

In the South African contact centre industry, we are only now starting to see the tip of the iceberg – the more connected we become, the greater the possibilities.

What makes digital personal assistants tick?

Technology is the driver that unleashes the possibility of this innovation, and this is being both adopted and furthered by the bigger players in the market. IBM’s Watson, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Luis are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved.

Underpinning this technology though, is the comprehensive knowledge base that enables these personal digital assistants to “understand” the need being presented and to respond accordingly. Tied to this, is the sophisticated machine learning component that allows for enhancement and refinement of responses based on user input and feedback, allowing for a better – more detailed, nuanced and accurate – experience.

As the big names in the game continue to explore new possibilities, the reality for local businesses and contact centres is that we need to grab this opportunity. If we don’t, others will.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate, which increased from 26.5 percent in the last quarter of last year, is the highest since September 2003, despite a rise in employment in finance (152 000), manufacturing (145 000), and construction (143 000).

Sectors that shed jobs were agriculture (44 000), trade (15 000) and government (2 000). The current economic situation means that young people who are currently studying have limited chances of getting jobs, even if they are qualified.

This should inspire a change in academic institutions. Universities can no longer just prepare young people to be employed – they should work towards preparing young people to be entrepreneurs and creators of jobs.

Universities should collaborate more with start-up incubators and accelerators to develop job creators. Y Combinator is a great example of a creator of employers in the US. It selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs. Months of intense work culminates in Demo Day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear their pitches. Any one of them might turn out to be the next DropBox (class of 2007) or Airbnb (class of 2009).

Y Combinator is one of the first start-up accelerators to be formed in the US in 2005 followed by TechStars, another leading start-up accelerator. These two are considered to be premier accelerator programmes globally. In South Africa, the Bandwidth Barn, a subsidiary of the Cape Innovation Technology Initiative (Citi), is one of the leading incubators in the country. (Disclosure: I served as board member of Citi for 10 years)

The Brookings Institution recently outlined a clearer picture of what they do. Research literature has also been reviewed on the effectiveness of accelerators and incubators to achieve their stated aims, some best practices for accelerator programmes, and some figures on the size, scope, and impact of these organisations.

Incubators and accelerators are playing an increasing role in start-up communities around the world. There’s significant potential of accelerators to be job creators, and for these benefits to spill over into the broader society. However, the measurable impact of accelerators and incubators have on performance varies widely among programmes – not all accelerators are created equally. Quality matters. I believe incubators can play a very important role in developing young people who can create jobs.

Start-up accelerators and incubators support early-stage, growth-driven companies through education, mentorship, and financing. Start-ups enter accelerators for a fixed-period of time, and as part of a cohort of companies. The accelerator experience is a process of intense, rapid, and immersive education, compressing years’ worth of learning-by-doing into just a few months.

The following are just some of the African leading incubators that are worth supporting: LaunchLab; Cortex Hub; Innovation; iHub (Kenya); MEST Ghana; Bandwidth Barn (Woodstock and Khayelitsha); Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Incubator; RaizCorp MTN Solution Space.

Growth in US-based accelerators really took off after 2008, as it did for start-ups, early-stage capital, and venture investment more broadly. The number of US-based accelerators increased by an average of 50 percent each year between 2008 and 2014.

Currently a number of academic institutions have adopted incubators and accelerators as part of their programmes. Stanford and Harvard University are leading in this regard.

In South Africa, LaunchLab, an incubator set-up by the University of Stellenbosch has pioneered the concept of including incubator within an academic institution. It allows students to set-up their businesses on campus and support them to grow.

What is now needed is to bring incubators closer to academic institutions with an aim of turning students into job creators as opposed to being job seekers.

In the next few months as part of providing useful information to our readers we will be sharing information about incubators and accelerators.

The outcome of our work will become a useful resource for young people to know where to go to become creators of jobs.

The reality for local businesses and contact centres is that we need to grab this opportunity. If we don’t, others will.