[kictanet] Day 10 of 10- BPO Discussions, Strengths and Weaknesses (Observations from USA and UK); and Trends and Niches

[Sam Aguyo]

Members

India: The niche areas for India are a little hard to perceive
as they were front-runners in the BPO industry amongst developing countries
 
The above
statement is a misconception and would be misleading.  I know a bit of India and what goes on in that
country.  India has very good software engineers
which can be trusted by Microsoft to help them in coding of their applications. 
 
As we aspire to
establish a BPO outfit, we imagine setting up an illustrious office in up
market environment with 100^ seats.  In India, they put
more emphasis on cottage industries, what office space does a good and reliable
programmer need to code parts of Windows operating system?
 
Our strengths.
Accountants, Medics,
Radiographers, Programmers, Engineers, Translators, Researchers, Teachers, Actuaries,
Etc
 
Weaknesses
We are slowly slipping
in the same predicament that befell us when ICT was introduced in offices as a
tool that would facilitate retrenchment, when we state that accounting etc can
be given to an outsourcing company which might not be an accounting firm, what
message are we sending out there?  
 
We need to involve
everybody in this matter, in my understanding organisations such as auditing
firms, research firms have been involved in outsourcing for a long period of
time!  
 
Way forward
The BPO needs to demystify
the industry.  We need to guide
accountants on how to outsource accounting services to a Japanese company, in
the same way a programmer can provide services to a pharmaceutical company in
regards to malaria patient’s management. With the broadband available nationally,
a teacher in Wajir can teach American students Kiswahili.  An outsourcing company can organise theme
programmes – can invite Osewe of Ranalo to teach Aussies how to prepare nyama
choma. Also outsourcing need to audit their strengths as either engineering
therefore employ engineers, call centre management therefore employ marketing
fellows with good accent.
 
 All this should be coordinated by a substantive
office which will market all this abroad. At the moment confusing though!

Sam Aguyo



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20090613/7e858450/attachment.htm>