Listers, Just two weeks ago, Edwin Onchari was the master of ceremony in a function where we were marketing our country to the Indian Investors. Most of you have read what IBM promised when the IBM President met with our President. They want a relationship with the Universities where they guarantee employment of up to 10,000 Kenyans. They along with Bharti want Land to put up the experience center as well as their HQ. We have firm commitment that some of GE work will be done out of Sameer Park. Google has employed a significant number of Kenyans and they continue to do so while we create the enabling environment. I am on my way to woo other big investors. MaCkinsey report indicated clearly that in BPO one can only break even at 250 seat capacity. As we sought to lease Sameer, I have said a million times that we shall use the facility to incubate local enterpreneurs to grow to the extent wher they can break even. This was partly implementing the MaCkinsey study. Just as I write Brand Kenya with ICT Board is in the UK and the US to recruit Kenyans in the diaspora to be our Ambassadors in marketing our country. The role of Government is to create the enabling environment for its citizens to thrive. We have havelargely created this environment. In my view if we continue with Kanu hangovers we shall not exploit that which President Kibaki's Government has done to its people. Let us not come to regret that we should have taken advantage of this environment. There is lots of opportunity to exploit and where one has no clue, we are ready to help. Ndemo.
Marketing and branding Kenya as a BPO destination is yet to be achieved! So, government has yet to demonstrate (to the best of my knowledge) what it is doing to that end. IBM, Google, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, (the big IT investors), etc; are all Kenya as we speak, when are they going to buy into this grand plan of outsourcing to Kenya? Do we not have the workforce they are looking for? What is it that we do not have that they are looking for, so that we have it in place before 2030? Just wondering!!
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@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 10:30 AM To: Edwin Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand
Robert ...
Once more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdA1ikkoEc
:)
Hi Liko, Thanks for the insightful post on your experiences it is always refreshing to listen to new ideas. You made something very clear that for most BPO jobs one does not need a university degree, do you therefore subscribe to the school of that the government should stop promising fresh graduates that the solution to
possible unemployment will be the BPO sector. It is scary when you hear a minister at a graduation telling the students that they will get a job in the BPO sector. You have indicated the 3,000 (1,200 at Safaricom) jobs currently created courtesy of the BPO industry yet we will have 450,000 leaving form 4 and 30,000 graduating from Universities this year alone making the number a drop in the ocean. Whatever you believe, I strongly feel the government is not doing enough, like with any new sector without the participation of government there will be sluggish or no growth. Investing in new sectors is what government is created for and not participation in mature markets an area that need to be divest. How long will it take your company to directly or indirectly create 10 new jobs & long would it take the government to do the same, but in this we digress. The critical question still remains where does Kenya stand in the new BPO order brought about by the financial crisis?
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, 3 October, 2010 22:11:11 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand
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@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@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@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@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
On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 9:39 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: their 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@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@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@lynxbits.com> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 22:54:04 To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand
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