Marcel Thanks for this email and I am glad that you have flagged two important issues. 1. Outsourcing creats jobs 2. Local outsourcing is critical. One would have to agree that the biggest potential source of outsource jobs in Kenya is the Corporate Sector and the Government. Both are not really big outsourcers at the moment. None of them is doing large outsourcing of customer service (through call centres) or data processing. The Kenya ICT Board believes that local outsourcing is what will give this industry momentum. I will therefore follow on the local opportunities you mention specifically in your email in order to establish what we can do as a board to support the industry. Here we need KIF's partnership to establish where this actual opportunities lie and to speak to the decision makers in the context of a private public partnership. Incidentally, I have spoken to the CEO at KEPSA to agree a date in March when the board will to meet with the larger corporations to understand their outsourcing strategies if any and to help encourage them to look at local companies favourably. We need to know whether decision makers feel there are challenges to this participation by local firms. The campaign to outsource work locally has our support. It is part of our strategy. One would have to agree that there are many reasons for the Kenya Governement to consider developing outsourcing. By unbundling service delivery, Government can deliver services better to citizens. As part of our strategy, the board is building a case for a formal governnment approach to outsourcing. This is one of the ways to create self sufficiency and jobs in the economy.When we present our strategic plan to the industry in March, we shall detail this. My challenge to the IT enabled services sector, (which includes Outsourcing, software development, systems support etc ) is that we also have to build strong businesses and partner with world class firms where it helps. My experience in the sector is that there is lots of work out there, but alot if it is actually outsourced offshore. We dont want a situation where the Board goes out building the case for outsourcing and we get in what is relatively low value work, only for the higher value work locally to be offshored. They way to mitigate this is to build strong local business lobbies (as we are doing through KIF etc), to be aggressive in partnering to deliver to contracts and to develop local skills. As the board, we have a mandate to ensure outsourcing is developed and people are employed in the process. As the outsourcing sector is also suffering due to Kenya's reputation currently, one of the mitigating actions is to build local outsourcing. On 2/11/08, Marcel Werner <marcelcwerner@gmail.com> 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
please send any office correspondence to: marcelwerner@innovation-africa.net
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-- Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board PO Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Teleposta Towers 10th Floor Tel direct: +254 20 2089062/251152 Fax: +254 20 315147 Cell: + 254 733 739488 website: www.ict.go.ke