It seems Fiji, an island country located in the remote Pacific, is on its way to emerge as the next BPO superpower. Thanks to an array of competitive advantages,   Fiji is all set to give established BPO players a good run for their money in a few years time, and the country’s appearance on the shortlist for this year’s National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Award in the Offshoring Destination of the Year category, proves that big time. The NOA award is aimed at the UK outsourcing sector, and the shortlist is supposed to represent the best of the best in outsourcing.

It all began with the initiatives of Mindpearl, a company that went against convention and opened an outsourced international contact center in Fiji in 2009. The company was worried about the growing dissatisfaction of their customers about their overall experience with agents based in established BPO locations such as India and the Philippines. There was increasing negative publicity around language barriers and cultural disconnect.

Consequently Mindpearl started looking for an alternative outsourcing environment to offer a high quality and low cost English language customer service to its customers in the UK. Mindpearl zeroed on the unconventional location of Fiji to complement’s its existing contact center facilities in Australia, Spain and South Africa.

The Facilities in Fiji has enabled Mindpearl to offer 24/7 contact center support services to its clients based in all the major English speaking markets, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US. Mindpearl’s clients include a number of global brands across multiple industry sectors. Recently, Mindpearl Fiji’s Home Direct team celebrated the second anniversary of taking the first live call for Home Direct.

“Fiji offers extremely cost effective 24/7 contact center support, without compromising on quality. This global recognition just reaffirms Mindpearl's decision to go to Fiji. This is a major win for Fiji and bodes well for further BPO investment into the country over the next 12 months,” CEO of Mindpearl William Pattison acknowledged in a statement.

NOA Director, Kerry Hallard said, “2013 is a monumental year for the NOA awards, as it’s our 10th Anniversary, and yet again we have seen a growing number of submissions – all of outstanding quality. The shortlist truly represents the best of the best in outsourcing, and I am extremely proud to see that so many organizations clearly value the positive association of participation.”