[kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand

[Edwin Onchari]

Hi Dr. Ndemo,

My apologies for not having highlighted the positives that the government
has made in developing the ICT sector in general such as the Fiber link,
upcoming ICT parks, EPZ status for BPOs, skills development, ICT frameworks,
etc.

That said, my response here was in respect to placing Kenya as BPO
destination on the global stage. The BPO awareness that Kenya has received
over the last 6 years has been largely due to operator efforts (a handful of
BPOs). My take is that the government should take up the country's marketing
efforts more aggressively and as below:

1. Yes, sell to large IT investors and attract the IBMs of the IT world to
set-up/collaborate in Kenya. We are all aware that there is some work to be
done in this front to get the capacity to attract such big players, and this
might take a while.
2. But also, target the lower lying fruit: Over 80% of the BPO market is
dominated by mid-sized companies from key markets of Europe and North
America-outsourcing. These organizations outsource small projects (1-50
seats), which cumulatively have translated to employing over 250,000 staff
in the Philippines/Malaysia for example. That did not come from a handful of
big players setting up shop in the Philippines alone at the start, but
rather many small to mid-sized organizations sending work there.

The global BPO forums and symposiums always have tier3 destination
governments in attendance, with the sole purpose of showcasing the operators
in their countries, above and beyond, their conscious efforts of attracting
big IT firms to set up shop in their countries. I could be gravely wrong
here, but, going through all the major global BPO forums that have taken
place in the last 3 years; Kenya has not featured in any of them (not by our
government agencies at least). This means that very few firms out there
consider Kenya as a viable destination to place work, or are even aware that
fiber landed in Kenya.

I still strongly feel that unless we come up with a collaborative, well
thought through BPO strategy, we'll miss creating the kind of employment
numbers that we are envisioning in the 2030 blue print. 

While it is not my intent to project negative energy, as a seasoned operator
in the industry, I feel obliged to inform where I feel we are missing the
targets.

Best regards,

Edwin

Sales without Customer Service........is like stuffing money into a pocket
full of holes.
DAVID TOOMA


-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of bitange at jambo.co.ke
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:34 PM
To: Edwin
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand

Fibre Landed in Kenya just last year.  We do not have the facility to
incubate upcoming enterprises or attract large IT Investors.  We are still
developing capacity.  To go to market one has to have the product.  GOK is
aggressively digitalizing all its registries to encourage new applications.
GOK has invested heavily on the ICT infrastructure.

If we truely want to succeed and move ICT to another level, such negative
energy is the last thing we need.  Having made his criticism, perhaps Edwin
should elaborate what he would have done under the circumstances or what he
considers to be the right track to achieving vision 2030.

Ndemo.


 
Sent from my BlackBerryR

-----Original Message-----
From: "Edwin Onchari" <eonchari at lynxbits.com>
Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 22:54:04 
To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand

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