[kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand

Mon Oct 4 09:24:09 EAT 2010

Listers,

Interesting reading...
I realise that for some reason, most people seem to expect that this young
industry should already have caught up with those countries that started over 10
years before us- it does not work like that.
Yes, we would like to see it much bigger but yes, a lot of "right" things have
been done and put in place over the last four years. We cannot say the situation
remains the same, we are in a better place.
We need to remind ourselves that most of these countries you are all referring
are much larger economies and have therefore leveraged on this. For instance, do
you realise that in SA only 20% of the BPO industry comprise of outsourced
centres? The rest are captives.  
In India and the Asian countries, they are making the bulk of their money from
outsourced work from USA and Europe.
Do we also realise that the Government could not oversell the country before the
infrastructure was in place and that only happened recently?
It is now time to sell the country but both at individual levels -your own
company strategy and at Government level.
Last week we hosted a NASSCOM delegation for the first time in Kenya.
They were totally sold in and that word of mouth can only do great service to
growing the ITES industry.
It is the likes of companies like Airtel that create the ripple effect and once
we have two more of such companies (see the IBM contract effect), the rest will
trickle in and it becomes "easier" to sell your company's services.
Incidentally there are many companies quietly operating in this space and the
industry is not dead.
Things will definitely be looking much better in not too long to come. 
Capacity building is necessary. The key thing is that it should be done in the
right areas eg. finishing schools to get people ready to work rather than
companies spending two months "finishing" the new employees.
I do hope that is how the "capacity building" is being looked at.
Otherwise I would say that we now need to see more budgets allocated for
marketing/branding Kenya as an ITES destination BUT for goodness sake these
budgets should be appropriately used so there are proper returns. 
And the private sector must surely be involved in this.

Kind regards,

Gilda 

Quoting Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>:

> Robert
> 
> No goal posts have shifted. The field is still the same and one can
> say it will be better.
> 
> All those baby boomers who lost their jobs after the global financial
> crisis are now competing with Indians, Malaysians etc etc etc. Even
> though the Democrats in US don't like outsourcing, the Republicans
> should make gains during the mid terms and it will become easier for
> businesses to get cost effective labor abroad. Same goes for Europe
> etc etc
> 
> The thing that concerns me is this focus on "capacity building" ... I
> don't understand which training one needs in order to answer a phone
> call :) ... and most of us who went to study abroad would attest to
> the fact that you could get a customer service job, shadow an
> experienced person for 3 days and you are picking calls ....  Even IT
> jobs ... you did industry certs and broke through.
> 
> As I said, On Outsourcing the buck stops at the operators feet.
> 
> About "should we just hang our boots and direct our efforts and
> resources elsewhere?"
> 
> There are companies still working well in the sector ... and they will
> keep growing ... I am sure all have seen hard times, but hey - that's
> business. If we are to move elsewhere ... what about the 3000+ jobs
> created thus far ?
> 
> Bottom Line - On outsourcing.... lets not blame the government ...
> they have done and continue to do their part
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 9:12 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > Hi Liko,
> > I think you have misunderstood the question here, we are singing about how
> > the BPO industry will help us meet the objectives of the 2030 agenda yet
> the
> > entire playing field is changing and we do not seem to be realigning.
> > As the goal posts keep shifting are we able to continue playing or should
> we
> > just hang our boots and direct our efforts and resources elsewhere?
> > Regards
> >
> > Robert Yawe
> > KAY System Technologies Ltd
> > Phoenix House, 6th Floor
> > P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
> > Kenya
> >
> > Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com>
> > To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > Sent: Sun, 3 October, 2010 17:51:07
> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand
> >
> > Edwin
> >
> > There is a strategy and very true stuff in there. Lots of people are
> > privy to what the mckinseys hv said etc etc. But to me, the main issue
> > is execution and patience.
> >
> > In my experience, clients don't care where you are (country) all they
> > care about is can you deliver ?
> >
> > Delivery becomes the issue and there is little the govt can do here.
> >
> > 3 years ago, a call to USA was 40shs per minute ....... Now it's
> > 3shs, labor costs the same. Internet was usd6000 per mb (dedicated)
> > .... I remember spending 400k just to get last mile fiber. Now 1mb is
> > usd 500
> >
> > The buck has to stop at the operators feet .....
> >
> >
> > On Sunday, October 3, 2010, Edwin Onchari <eonchari at lynxbits.com> wrote:
> >> 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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