Marcel, As the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. This is true of the fledgling ICT/BPO and related industries in Kenya today. For starters, we are lucky to have people in Government who have the vision to develop the ICT indstry in the country. I say lucky because without visionaries in Government, proposals on ICTs as a whole would be gathering dust in the relevant ministry's shelves since nobody would have wanted to take such a heavy responsibility or have the knowledge to understand the nature of the business. Having said that, and as you say, charity begins at home. Even as we seek for the big bucks overseas, we also need to develop the local BPO business. Something akin to domestic tourism which had been ignored for many years until the Government realised that Kenyans also spend real money (ask Safaricom!) I believe that these are the issues and suggestions that stakeholders will be discussing with the ICT Board in the public consultative fora. In the meantime, there is need for raising awareness of the opportunities in the BPO industry to potential customers like government ministries, large NGOs and big business. Excellent idea right there! Stephen Ndegwa On 11/02/2008, Marcel Werner <[email protected]> wrote:
We are encouraged by the developments in the BPO Sector. The recent meeting between Kenya BPO & Contact Center Society and the ICT Board revealed steps in the right direction as regards engagement by local entities and more specifically, Government, in taking the lead in outsourcing. The positive engagement between the BPO Society and The Ministry of Special Projects in establishing a call/contact center facility for the easy access by the displaced and other dis-enfranchised Kenyans following the recent sad events is a commendable effort.
I am informed that the Kenya Police was severely constrained and could hardly cope with the numerous distress calls that it received because of inadequate technological systems. They may also similarly be looking to enhance their capability.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a healthy practice and common business sense that helps improve efficiency. Farming out non-mission-critical tasks to specialised service providers creates jobs. Not only if the client is off-shore, but also if the client is local and now more focused on its core business, thereby becoming more competitive and cost-effective. We have not seen much evidence that we are scouting around at home for BPO opportunities, more urgent now that the country's international image has taken a beating during the past few weeks. Those locally based companies that have capabilities to offer BPO services should be given more support, also from locally based clients. This is good for the economy, and good for the BPO industry.
Positive steps being taken by the Kenya ICT Board in promoting Kenya as an Outsource destination should be fully supported. More should also be done by the local business that should equally be encouraged to outsource. Some, like Safaricom, had made some indications towards outsourcing and nobody knows where this process ended. The Kenya ICT Board, The Ministry of ICT and other ICT Sector Associations should be urged to lobby for such opportunities to be given to local BPO Operators, not only because it enables job creation in these hard times, but also because it helps establish a local competence and capability that we need before we embark on the international leg of selling Kenya as an outsource destination.
What are the industry players doing in encouraging this? Over to you….
Marcel Werner, chairman Kenya ICT Federation - www.kif.or.ke
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