“In the outsourcing relationship, integrity is everything,” says Louis Rossam, who is responsible for the Outsourcing Growth platform in Accenture South Africa’s Products operating group.
Accenture is known for the rigor with which it monitors performance, but Rossam says this should be a given in any outsourcing relationship. What differentiates a simple service provider from an outsourcing relationship is the level of trust: “Sustaining an outsourcing relationship goes well beyond merely meeting a service contract,” he emphasizes. In this respect, Rossum says Accenture occupies the strategic position of “trusted advisor” in relation to its outsourcing partners—“a position we have earned over time,” he adds.
For an outsourcing relationship to grow, it is vital to stay close to the client, Rossam believes. He says this is particularly important at present, given the challenges facing Accenture’s major outsourcing clients—especially those in the retail sector. In respect of larger clients, closeness can be regarded as quite literal: Accenture South Africa’s "foundation" outsourcing client has around 400 Accenture professionals based at the client site—and Rossam says face-to-face discussions with client executives are a daily occurrence for him.
Challenging times should be viewed as an opportunity to offer clients options that help them become more efficient and achieve high performance, according to Rossam. Accenture’s global experience in implementing a "factory" approach allows companies to optimize their processes through industrializing routine procedures. “We are able to leverage what we do anywhere in the world to support our local clients. That’s an enormous advantage,” Rossum says. If there is an interim need to cut back on services Accenture tries to do it “in ways that don’t harm future growth prospects,” he adds.
Looking ahead, Rossam sees room for growth in the South African outsourcing market. “As economic pressure grows, many companies are likely to go into outsourcing. In this respect, South Africa is behind the curve compared to Europe and the United States. While the cost savings for outsourcing to offshore service providers are not as good in South Africa as they are in Europe or Asia, they are nonetheless significant,” Rossam believes. He points out that outsourcing does not necessarily imply using offshore resources. This is important, not only for developing local skills, but also when it comes to working with the South African government, which has a policy of using local people.
Rossam joined Accenture in 1996 as an experienced hire, having worked in systems delivery and application support since 1980. In his years at Accenture he says he’s gained immeasurably from Accenture’s mentoring system. As an executive director he believes in being accessible at all times: “I have an open door policy so anyone can come and see me face to face.”
Rossam and his wife have five children, three boys and two girls. They live on a smallholding near Benoni in a house that Rossam built himself, including doing all the carpentry and fittings. However, he says his handyman days are over and now even the pool cleaning is outsourced—truly a case of practicing what one preaches! One of Rossam’s greatest pleasures is getting on a horse and disappearing into the farmlands of the East Rand. He says he met his wife through horse riding and he now enjoys accompanying their younger daughter to national horse riding competitions.