[kictanet] Develop the LOCAL outsourcing market

Tue Feb 12 14:50:06 EAT 2008

Hi Mr. Kukubo,

If I am not mistaken the ICT board is actually a government entity and thus aren't you abdicating your responsibility on this issue of government outsourcing?

I raised what I believe is a pertinent issue, that the government needs to setup  a central contact point.  It is frustrating to have to call 3 ministries when looking for information.

The site kenya.go.ke is a very good initiative and I hope the board can work  towards providing us with a single contact telephone number that we can use to contact all wings and agencies of the government.  It is interesting that except KRA none of the other government offices have an ISDN service.

"Think global act local"

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
KEnya 
Tel: +254722511225

----- Original Message ----
From: Paul Kukubo <pkukubo at ict.go.ke>
To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: secretariat at kif.or.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Monday, 11 February, 2008 6:07:44 AM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Develop the LOCAL outsourcing market

Marcel

Thanks for this email and I am glad that you have flagged two important issues.

1. Outsourcing creats jobs

2. Local outsourcing is critical. 

One would have to agree that the biggest potential source of outsource jobs in Kenya is the Corporate Sector and the Government. Both are not really big outsourcers at the moment. None of them is doing large outsourcing of customer service (through call centres) or data processing. 

The Kenya ICT Board believes that local outsourcing is what will give this industry momentum. I will therefore follow on the local opportunities you mention specifically in your email in order to establish what we can do as a board to support the industry. Here we need KIF's partnership to establish where this actual opportunities lie and to speak to the decision makers in the context of a private public partnership. 

Incidentally, I have spoken to the CEO at KEPSA to agree a date in March when the board will to meet with the larger corporations to understand their outsourcing strategies if any and to help encourage them to look at local companies favourably. We need to know whether decision makers feel there are challenges to this participation by local firms. The campaign to outsource work locally has our support. It is part of our strategy.

One would have to agree that there are many reasons for the Kenya Governement to consider developing outsourcing. By unbundling service delivery, Government can deliver services better to citizens. As part of our strategy, the board is building a case for a formal governnment approach to outsourcing. This is one of the ways to create self sufficiency and jobs in the economy.When we present our strategic plan to the industry in March, we shall detail this.

My challenge to the IT enabled services sector, (which includes Outsourcing, software development, systems support etc ) is that we also have to build strong businesses and partner with world class firms where it helps. 

My experience in the sector is that there is lots of work out there, but alot if it is actually outsourced offshore. We dont want a situation where the Board goes out building the case for outsourcing and we get in what is relatively low value work, only for the higher value work locally to be offshored.  They way to mitigate this is to build strong local business lobbies (as we are doing through KIF etc), to be aggressive in partnering to deliver to contracts and to develop local skills. 

As the board, we have a mandate to ensure outsourcing is developed and people are employed in the process.

As the outsourcing sector is also suffering due to Kenya's reputation currently, one of the mitigating actions is to build local outsourcing.

On 2/11/08, Marcel Werner <marcelcwerner at gmail.com> wrote:

We are encouraged by the developments in the BPO Sector. The 
recent meeting between Kenya BPO & Contact Center Society and the ICT Board 
revealed steps in the right direction as regards engagement by local entities 
and more specifically, Government, in taking the lead in outsourcing. The 
positive engagement between the BPO Society and The Ministry of Special Projects 
in establishing a call/contact center facility for the easy access by the 
displaced and other dis-enfranchised Kenyans following the recent sad events is 
a commendable effort.

I am informed that the Kenya Police was severely constrained 
and could hardly cope with the numerous distress calls that it received because 
of inadequate technological systems. They may also similarly be looking to 
enhance their capability. 

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a healthy practice and 
common business sense that helps improve efficiency. Farming out 
non-mission-critical tasks to specialised service providers creates jobs. Not 
only if the client is off-shore, but also if the client is local and now more 
focused on its core business, thereby becoming more competitive and 
cost-effective. We have not seen much evidence that we are scouting around at 
home for BPO opportunities, more urgent now that the country's international 
image has taken a beating during the past few weeks. Those locally based 
companies that have capabilities to offer BPO services should be given more 
support, also from locally based clients. This is good for the economy, and good 
for the BPO industry.

Positive steps being taken by the Kenya ICT Board in 
promoting Kenya as an Outsource destination should be fully supported. More 
should also be done by the local business that should equally be encouraged to 
outsource. Some, like Safaricom, had made some indications towards outsourcing 
and nobody knows where this process ended. The Kenya ICT Board, The Ministry of 
ICT and other ICT Sector Associations should be urged to lobby for such 
opportunities to be given to local BPO Operators, not only because it enables 
job creation in these hard times, but also because it helps establish a local 
competence and capability that we need before we embark on the international leg 
of selling Kenya as an outsource destination.

What are the industry players doing in encouraging this? Over 
to you….

Marcel Werner, chairman Kenya ICT Federation - www.kif.or.ke

please send any office correspondence to: marcelwerner at innovation-africa.net

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Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

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Tel direct: +254 20 2089062/251152

Fax: +254 20 315147
Cell: + 254 733 739488

website: www.ict.go.ke

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