[kictanet] Question on ICT/BPO Park

Fri Dec 4 12:30:44 EAT 2009

Dear Liko,

I appreciate your comments and the issues you have raised, given the
difficulties the young industry has faced.
Let me share my thoughts.

For a long time, I shared some of the same views you have detailed below but
after visits to various offshore destinations and after going through my own
personal learnings as a small operator, I realised that if the country ever has
to become a force to reckon with and stand to be counted as an alternative
offshore outsourcing destination, we must have the organised structures like the
other countries we are competing with. 

Unfortunately buildings do not come up in a day so there must be planning
towards ensuring that it happens within the required period.
I say this because a small operator aspires to expand, I do not think anyone
wants to remain at 20 seats. The small operators have had a really rough time
getting proper contracts, hence the difficulties you have outlined below. Part
of the reason for this is that they are going through middle men since direct
clients need to see certain things in the country to be interested at all.

In order for small operators to reach a point where they too start getting good
contracts, Kenya as a country needs to be a main attraction for the big players.
This would help the small operators have an easier sell.
Yes, for small operators,there is still office space available hence no priority
for the parks but the scenario is different for the large players. 

For Kenya to be a main attraction,several things must be put in
place.Infrastructure is key- ie.communication/transport/office parks- large ones
to accomodate big players who want to move in with 2000 seats and expand them to
5000 when they want to,without waiting for the building to be put up. 
I am glad to see private sector initiatives coming up in anticipation of the
sector's growth although the ones I have seen (other than Sameer) would only
take on about 500-1000 seats each.Many are however too expensive. 
The smaller BPOs (who are the majority) would ride on the elevation of Kenya
as a country, getting on the map with big players coming and setting shop.
Naturally, the big players have great demands and we cannot fault them on that.

That is not to say the small BPOs should be ignored. My stand is that the small
players should be given other incentives, like capacity building. Too much time
and money is lost on training agents. Sections of the proposed parks should be
allocated to a large group of small BPOs so they all have proper infrastructure
at affordable rent(at least for a certain period till they expand to 100
seats.)They could even be different companies but under one roof serving one
large company and undergoing same high quality training to ensure that they
operate at the same standard to serve the one client eg. 10 small BPOs with 100
seats each serving one client of 1000 seats. (Zain, Safaricom,Telkom,GoK do you
hear me?. I know there may be a comment that I should be looking at the domestic
industry.    

Marketing is key and we do need to see much more of that. As industry
association, we have been limited given the young stage we are at but we see
this changing a great deal soon. I cannot speak for government and I agree with
Liko that more can be done in marketing.
However,let us not lose sight that when one aggressively does any marketing, the
product should be ready for purchase. The cables only recently came in. We are
yet to start serious human resource capacity building so as to have thousands of
ready agents, supervisors and managers who have undertaken industry specific
training. We need this yesterday, so when those contracts (local or
international)come along,companies do not poach from each other and cripple each
others' operations.
We need to see enough buildings coming up as serious marketing kicks off, which
we hope Government will aggressively start in January 2010. 
And I really do not think we should be restricting our thoughts to "parks" but
to an entirely new zone with several buildings, schools,hospitals,malls- a new
mini city.  
We have to think big if we want to achieve great things. I believe we are
talking long term goals here, the short term that would help the smaller BPOs is
what I suggested- capacity building and marketing the country. 

Whose initiative was it? Government.

Gilda Odera 

Is this an industry initiative- not really. Credit goes to Government.
The key thing is that the park must not just be a park. It must be a whole new
city coming up with schools, hospitals, malls, housing and much much more. 

Meanwhile, the struggle continues...........but not for too long we hope!

Gilda      

Quoting Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>:

> My views ....
> 
> As a small BPO operator { www.verviant.com }for the last 3 years, I think
> this is not the best use for any public funds for now {where now is 4-6
> years} ... here are my reasons
> 
> a. Lack of working capital is one of the biggest reasons BPO's in this
> country have failed, we{operators} used to complain about internet prices
> but truth is if you look at providers... the ability to just pay workers is
> the single biggest challenge
> 
> To this, the single biggest beef about the BPO sector in the working Kenyans
> mind is that we dont pay on time {ever}
> 
> As a provider, I know clients may delay payments, middle men may ran away
> etc etc ... but this stuff kills you and in a society that is primarily
> driven by Asset based lending .... you are stuck
> 
> as a provider, there are times when billables out there are pretty hefty but
> clients has not paid ... to an employee or consultant, its another story
> 
> b. We have really sucked at marketing... either as Kenya or as providers ...
> now, the bigger providers may have made breakthrus in this area but then we
> have collectivelly failed to market Kenya ... Our industry organisations
> have also failed to make a 1-1 connection between providers and clients ...
> this in my view could be the single biggest driver of success in the sector
> ....
> 
> My thinking is instead of going off to 60 KM's outside Nairobi and building
> a park that may not fill in the next 5 years, why dont we solve the 2
> problems above and then take it from there.
> 
> ------------------
> 
> I am not for the idea of making employees travel another 60KM's to work.
> 
> The 6 lane highways may come, South Africa may be doing it... but how many
> seats do we have right now compared to Malaysia, Egypt, Philipines, South
> Africa and Brazil
> 
> In my original post, I asked whether this was a government idea or an
> industry idea .. I would love to learn more ... maybe I just dont have the
> right info
> 
> ------------------
> 
> Dr Ndemo, Gilda ... you all are leaders in this sector, what am asking for
> is just some honest reflection or conversation about how we can make things
> work. We all know of very many failed BPOs ... is this the silver bullet ?
> 
> Providers on the list, BPO Employees ... any views ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Catherine Adeya
> <elizaslider at yahoo.com>wrote:
> 
> > Very true...in the South Africa case, they are building a very major BPO
> > Part in Port Elizabeth. They started in January and are on track to
> complete
> > by March....within time and within budget. It is excellent.
> >
> > Nyaki
> >
> > ------------------------------
> > *From:* "bitange at jambo.co.ke" <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> > *To:* elizaslider at yahoo.com
> >
> > *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > *Sent:* Thu, December 3, 2009 12:35:28 PM
> > *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Question on ICT/BPO Park
> >
> > Mr.  Liko,
> > All such parks are outside of Town.  Check Malaysia, Egypt, Philipines,
> > South Africa and Brazil.  Malili is 60 KMs out of Nairobi on Mombasa Road.
> >
> > Ndemo.
> > Sent from my BlackBerry®
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>
> > Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 03:27:24
> > To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > Subject: [kictanet] Question on ICT/BPO Park
> >
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