Logicalis proposing to move UK helpdesk roles to South Africa

But global integrator will also make the UK a European centre of excellence for managed services under global revamp, sources tell us

Logicalis is gearing up to move some of its UK helpdesk roles to South Africa as part of a wider global managed services revamp.

According to multiple industry sources, the global systems integrator kicked off a consultation period with affected UK staff yesterday that will last until 4 June.

Under the proposals, about 40 of Logicalis' 65 UK helpdesk roles are set to be shifted to Logicalis' newly launched operation in Cape Town, which is being run by former Computacenter bigwig Frikkie Grobler.

South Africa is to become a new centre of excellence for helpdesk services.

At the same time, however, the UK is in line to become a centre of excellence for Europe for higher-end managed services. This opens up the possibility that some new UK roles will be created later in the year.

"The management team they've recruited to build the South Africa operation used to run the managed services business for Computacenter," explained one industry onlooker.

"South Africa will become a centre of excellence for helpdesk-type services, much in the same way those guys were doing for Computacenter."

The source added: "This is part of a global managed services strategy. Logicalis is looking to provide more innovative and detailed managed service than it currently offers. They are investing between £1m and £2m in the next year in growing the UK services operation."

Part of South Africa-based IT group Datatec, Cisco, HP and IBM partner Logicalis turned over £757.2m in its fiscal first half of 2017, with 27 per cent of revenues coming from Europe.

Logicalis currently employs around 65 helpdesk staff in Slough and south Wales, but some roles could remain in the UK and be managed from South Africa, the source added.

Logicalis declined to comment.