[kictanet] marketing Kenya as a BPO destination

Tue Jun 24 18:51:02 EAT 2008

Eunice

you mention marketing activities the Board has organised, however you fail to state which exactly these are. Last year i visited the UK in November and met some call centre industry professionals who were quite excited to learn of Kenya's existence in the BPO industry, after they had seen a series of adverts  in a leading UK Call Centre magazine.

This to me means that Kenya was beginning to gain some visibility due to some efforts in dvertising, PR etc. these were tangible acitivities/efforts which I believe were sponsored by the Ministry of Information. 

Has the ICT Board engaged in any branding activities of Kenya as an outsourcing destination since last year? Any this year? 

You mention my tone: it is the tone of a bitter BPO operator who invested in this industry with high hopes.

However, thank you for your response. I look forward to receiving the ICT Board plan for marketing, considering the year is halfway gone and nothing much has taken place in the international front.

Wambui

--- On Sat, 21/6/08, eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke <eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke> wrote:

From: eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke <eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] marketing Kenya as a BPO destination
To: wambuiwakarema at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Saturday, 21 June, 2008, 7:37 AM

Dear Margaret,
Your passion and enthusiasm about the BPO industry is very interesting, your
language and right of opinion notwithstanding. 

However, one may find it heard to relate to the accusations of non performance
due to what you call  'The boards sheer incompetence and failure to
deliver', since you failed to articulate the basis of your evaluation. 

To help you appreciate what the board is doing to market BPO industry and how
you can contribute positively.

1) Refer to board CEO's earlier response to the BPO issues raised in this
forum.

2) The Boards strategic plan' public debate is underway and you may want to
be involved in order to better review the boards marketing activities and
evaluate its performance todate more objectively.

3) As Paul stated in his email, the Boards marketing plan is being finalised
and will equally be subjected to public debate and thus give you a chance to
give your input.

4) If you had attended some of our marketing activities both locally and
internationally, and the subsequent reviews with the industry, then you would
have been able to hear and experience first hand the real issues in the BPO
industry, kind of marketing activities we have been implementing and feedback.
Your email suggests a clear disconnect. 

5) It is important that we are clear that subsidy will not save the BPOs that
are closing shop. Far from it,  it is the operators  capacity for quality, 
scale, business planning, management and experise in your niche that will
guarantee survival. Thus the BPO subsidy  is not a supplement for business
management or indeed business.

4) Naturally, the board needs to do more; but we do operate under such
constraints as budgets - which you may want to appraise yourself of.

5) This discussions are very important and we at the board encourage them a
lot. However something is to be said of choice of words and tone in engendering
discussion. 

The Kenya ICT Board is at the KICC, participating fully to the development of
standards and ethics for the industry (a much more important aspect of the BPO
business) and I hope to engage more here  with you and others who feel as you
do. 

These are the sort of activities that will grow and build the BPO industry
credibility and attract jobs - in order to make the marketing activities that
you refer to in your email worthwhile.

You are also welcome to our offices to discuss your concerns and get responses
in detail in person, any time.

Regards,

Eunice
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Celtel Kenya

-----Original Message-----
From: Wambui Wakarema <wambuiwakarema at yahoo.co.uk>

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:28:08 
To: <eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] marketing Kenya as a BPO destination

_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

This message was sent to: eunicekariuki at ict.go.ke
Unsubscribe or change your options at
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/eunicekariuki%40ict.go..ke

      __________________________________________________________
Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20080624/54e9177c/attachment.htm>