15 years of Sigma Connected – how we built a different kind of BPO

Fifteen years in, the question I keep coming back to is ‘just how did we get here?’.

I don’t mean that in a surprised way, although there are still moments when the scale of Sigma Connected makes me stop and think. I mean it in the operational sense. What actually got us from a small team in 2011 to a business of more than 5,000 people today?

The answer isn’t one big decision. It’s thousands of smaller ones. The standards you set. The people you trust. The processes you build. The times you choose not to copy the market. The moments when you decide that ‘good enough’ isn’t really good enough.

When Gary and I started Sigma Connected, we were coming at the same opportunity from very different angles. Gary was more externally focused, brilliant at relationships, clients and spotting where things could go next. I was more interested in the operation itself. The systems, the structure, the people, the detail behind how you build something that can grow without losing what made it work in the first place.

In the early days, we started with around 20 people, now we have more than 5,000 people across the business, supporting clients across multiple sectors and countries. On paper, that looks like a straight line. It wasn’t. It’s taken a lot of work, a lot of problem solving, and a lot of people backing themselves and each other.

That’s always been part of Sigma’s story. We’ve never had much interest in recreating what other businesses were doing. There’s no point being a slightly different version of the same thing. From day one, we wanted to build a business with its own standards, its own culture and its own way of operating.

Not different for the sake of it. Different because we believed the bar could be higher.

Before Sigma Connected, I had a slightly unusual route into this industry. I went to law school, moved into private practice and quickly realised it wasn’t for me. What I found far more interesting was the small contact centre inside the practice. I was drawn to the systems and processes behind it, and how you could build something that worked better at scale.

That interest has never really left me. I like the detail of operations, how teams are structured, how work moves, where things slow down, what people need in order to do the job properly. When those things are working, the business feels different. Clients get consistency, customers get better conversations, and teams aren’t fighting the same avoidable problems every day.

That’s why standards have always mattered so much to us. We’ve always wanted to be the best at what we do, but not in a glossy, PowerPoint slide kind of way. In the day-to-day sense. Are we looking after our people properly? Are we delivering what we said we would deliver? Are we making things better for clients and their customers? Are we improving, or just keeping things ticking over? Those questions have shaped a lot of the decisions we’ve made.

South Africa was a big decision, and has been a huge part of our growth, but for me the real story isn’t just that we built there. It’s how we built there.

We’ve always seen our South African operation as part of the core business, not an add-on or a lower-cost extension. That matters operationally. It means the same expectations, the same focus on quality, the same investment in people and the same belief that teams should be trusted to grow, lead and improve the work around them.

That approach has helped us create scale without losing the detail. It has also allowed us to create opportunities in places where work can have a real impact, including Mitchells Plain and Paarl. Gary has spoken about what that means on a human level. From my side, I see it as part of building a stronger, more sustainable business too.

Because if you want a business to last, you have to build it properly. You have to think about the people coming into it, the leaders growing through it, the communities around it and the quality of the work being delivered every day.

One of the things I’ve learned over the last 15 years is that operations are only as strong as the people growing inside them.

We’ve always tried to give people a shot. Many of the people who helped shape Sigma Connected stepped into roles that stretched them. They were trusted before they had every line on the CV. They learned quickly, took responsibility and helped build the next layer of the business.

That isn’t just a nice story about culture, it’s how you build resilience. When people are moving forward, the business moves forward with them.

I have a huge amount of trust in the people who work here. Their instinct on what we need, what our clients need and where the market is going is often better than anything you can pick up from a conference stage or a trade show. The answers are usually much closer to the operation than people think. That trust has been especially important as the industry has changed.

The BPO sector today is very different from the one we started in. A lot of the simpler, more transactional work has moved into automation or self-serve. What remains is often more complex, more sensitive and more important to get right. Complaints, vulnerability, financial difficulty, regulated conversations, moments where customers need someone who can listen, understand and make good decisions.

That’s where Sigma Connected has found its place. We’re not just here for volume, but here for the conversations that need proper support around them.

That kind of work needs strong operations behind it. Training has to be bespoke, and quality has to be consistent. Advisors need the right tools, the right coaching and the confidence to use their judgement. Clients need visibility and trust. And customers need to feel that the person helping them understands what’s happening and can do something useful about it.

Technology will keep changing the sector, and rightly so. But for me, the best technology is the kind that helps people do their jobs better. It should give advisors better information, clearer insight and more confidence in the moment. It should take friction out of the process, not take judgement out of the conversation.

That’s the balance we’ve always tried to build. Strong operations, good technology, clear standards and people who care about the outcome.

Fifteen years on, I’m proud that Sigma Connected is a solid business. Not flashy. Not trying to be something it’s not. Solid in the best sense – built carefully, tested by growth, shaped by good people and still ambitious about what comes next.

That doesn’t mean we always get everything right. Like many businesses, we’ve had difficult periods, and we’ve had to make decisions we wish we didn’t have to. There have been moments where delivery has been harder than anyone would want it to be.

But those are the times when your principles matter most. Even when decisions are difficult to shoulder, or delivery is more challenging than it should be, we have to stay anchored to what matters. People need to be treated with care and respect. Clients and their customers deserve work delivered to the high standard they expect. And we have to be honest enough to learn, improve and hold ourselves to that standard.

There have been plenty of moments where we’ve had to figure things out as we went. That’s business. But the expectations have stayed pretty consistent. Do the work properly, look after people and keep improving. And definitely don’t accept average as the ceiling.

So, how did we get here?

By building carefully. By backing people. By setting high expectations and trying to live up to them. By making bold decisions, then doing the less glamorous work needed to make them real.

Fifteen years in, I’m proud of the business we’ve built. Not because it’s the biggest in the room, but because it’s solid, useful and still ambitious. We’re not finished building. In many ways, it feels like we’re just getting started. That’s probably the bit I like most.