The Challenge

Before engaging Sigma Connected, the client had an existing long-term relationship with BPOs based in Cape Town and other locations. As well as experiencing systemic challenges with agent retention, flexibility, performance, and an opaque relationship with their Cape Town incumbent the client was also locked in a long-term contractual agreement which made it commercially difficult to exit without incurring major cost.

Consequently, the client decided to source an additional partner that could take on additional work packages of variable, sometimes small volume as a champion challenger to the incumbents. Sigma Connected was selected after a competitive tender, and we started the relationship with a 6-month early-stage debt collections pilot project deploying an 8FTE agent team based in our superior Cape Town location in the heart of the community.

Improvement in Financial Returns

The improvement in financial returns was impressive and immediate. Within 3 months, our team was ranked #1 in their performance league table in terms of revenue generation over both their incumbent suppliers.

After 6 months, one of the suppliers exited and Sigma Connected were handed their work package. The benefit of introducing Sigma Connected to the clients’ BPO estate had the added benefit of creating a virtuous cycle of continuous performance improvement. Because Sigma Connected delivered superior results within the first 3 months, it stimulated the existing suppliers to react to the challenge and work harder to improve their performance too.

By the end of 2024, Sigma Connected’s team has grown from 8FTE to 30FTE as a result of our consistently exceptional performance and value. The client gained sufficient confidence in our ability to deliver professionally managed, high quality outsourced operations in South Africa that they entrusted us with collections from their Major Business Accounts and Mid-Market customer operations, lines of business they haven’t outsourced before.

Strategic Transformation Partnership and Kraken Implementation

In 2025, the client took the strategic decision to embark on a large-scale transformation project to implement the industry leading Kraken billing and customer management system and universal agent operating model in its customer operations.

In June 2025, it initiated a competitive process to select a single BPO partner with proven capability and experience of supporting other energy suppliers in establishing and delivering operations that utilise the Kraken platform and universal agent model to support its project from day one.

The scope started with a requirement to stand up a group of suitably experienced individuals to join the clients’ project team in the UK, from point of project kick-off, to help them design the future operating model and become Kraken ambassadors to support the implementation in South Africa. Post go-live, scope entailed playing an instrumental role in bringing the new universal agent operating model to life and leveraging the full capability and experience of the new customer operational team to deliver industry leading experiences and outcomes to the clients’ customers.

Following a genuinely competitive tendering process with an accelerated timeframe, it awarded the contract to Sigma Connected. The initial solution design and implementation project planning phase is due to kick off in early July.