Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
Gilda, You are right when you say we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. But I think there is something to lose when the focus is too much on international market. We lose the opportunity to develop the domestic market, which, in my view, is one of the basic building block for the BPO sector in terms of capacity building/ experience which in turn will give confidence to the international market. When we talk of bad publicity for this country hampering the growth/attractiveness of the international BPO market, I believe a vibrant domestic BPO market will counter that (bad image) in a more convincing manner than asking the media to tone down on divisive politics, and will make the work easier for our international marketers. Also, I think that the move taken by some local companies to have their own in-house call/contact centres rather than outsource is a statement of 'no confidence' on the BPO operators. It has just made marketing Kenya as a BPO destination a little more difficult. Regards, Jotham --- On Thu, 6/4/09, godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> wrote: From: godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks To: jokilimo@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009, 4:59 AM Peres, I fully agree with your sentiments. I especially am of the very strong opinion (and I stand stoned by some) that we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. Much as there has been a school of thought that we focus on domestic first, I beg to differ. We need to do so in tandem with the international market. What have we to lose? Gilda
External perception is absolutely critical in the race to obtain international BPO contracts. No one wants to outsource to a country which they 'percieve' as unstable, or which they percieve as underdeveloped. The truth is that most executives in our source markets for BPO work, in particular USA, percieve Africa as one country with a myriad of ills:
Somalia -Pirates Congo - Wars Darfur- kicking out the Aid organizations, starvation Kenya ? Post Elections Violence Nigeria ? 419 Scams Zimbabwe ? Cholera and Inflation Etc., etc.
The best way to counter these perceptions is to have in-coming trade delegations from our source markets, so they can see for themselves what Kenya has to offer.
W need to work on changing these negative perceptions of Kenya/Africa, BUT at the same time build up our internal capacity. We cannot do one without the other. Local outsourcing market needs to be developed in tandem with the international.
Peres
Quoting Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>:
Colleagues your comments are right, however we seemed to be more inclined at external perceptions as opposed to building up internal capacity, must it take foreigners to show us our potential?
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:01 AM, munyiva ngea <munyivangea@gmail.com> wrote:
Good morning,
I agree with Peter about perception take Mauritius for example the Board of Investment and the BPO Vendors strive to change the perception of the country as a mere tourist attraction to an ICT Hub. They invite prospective investors or clients to the country take them to their lavish well equipped offices, which are probably located in Ebene Cyber City the landing point of the Submarine cable so the clients are assured of available internet infrastructure.After the site visit the clients are then whisked away to have a fantastic weekend on the beaches or on a boat. Simply put they show clients they can do much more than provide BPO services they can offer quality of life.
To answer Question 3 i think without the government and local vendors taking decisive steps to attract and retain investors and clients to the country. Basically we need to give officials who are marketing the country the funds to be able to invite the prospective investors and clients to the country to show them we sufficient infrastructure and Human resources.
In order to build confidence in the country's capabilities we have to have to EVIDENCE of these capabilities take India for example with its National Skills Registry which is an industry initiative to ensure that individuals employed by organizations have their background and antecedents verified (http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/national-skills-regi-13182.html) prospective clients need only to browse through the site to be assured that the country has the Human resource capacity needed. What about Kenya apart from various websites which allow individuals to upload their CVs where can a prospective client get information on the available agents, software developers and so on?? this information is not available on various institutional websites (universities, colleges) so how do we expect a client to actually believe that we are capable if we are unable to show it (Perception again!!)
-- Best regards Munyiva Ngea
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How well do we win the confidence of a local investor if the cost of doing business in Kenya is well beyond the reach of many wananchi? Take for instance registering a company. The process is rather cumbersome and tiring! Then take a look at our diplomatic missions abroad. How many of them use a .ke domain? How many can you point out using secure internet over free email addresses? For confidence to be built, the state should be confident enough with itself! On 05/06/2009, Jotham Kilimo Mwale <jokilimo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Gilda,
You are right when you say we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. But I think there is something to lose when the focus is too much on international market. We lose the opportunity to develop the domestic market, which, in my view, is one of the basic building block for the BPO sector in terms of capacity building/ experience which in turn will give confidence to the international market.
When we talk of bad publicity for this country hampering the growth/attractiveness of the international BPO market, I believe a vibrant domestic BPO market will counter that (bad image) in a more convincing manner than asking the media to tone down on divisive politics, and will make the work easier for our international marketers.
Also, I think that the move taken by some local companies to have their own in-house call/contact centres rather than outsource is a statement of 'no confidence' on the BPO operators. It has just made marketing Kenya as a BPO destination a little more difficult.
Regards, Jotham
--- On Thu, 6/4/09, godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> wrote:
From: godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks To: jokilimo@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009, 4:59 AM
Peres,
I fully agree with your sentiments. I especially am of the very strong opinion (and I stand stoned by some) that we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. Much as there has been a school of thought that we focus on domestic first, I beg to differ. We need to do so in tandem with the international market. What have we to lose?
Gilda
External perception is absolutely critical in the race to obtain international BPO contracts. No one wants to outsource to a country which they 'percieve' as unstable, or which they percieve as underdeveloped. The truth is that most executives in our source markets for BPO work, in particular USA, percieve Africa as one country with a myriad of ills:
Somalia -Pirates Congo - Wars Darfur- kicking out the Aid organizations, starvation Kenya ? Post Elections Violence Nigeria ? 419 Scams Zimbabwe ? Cholera and Inflation Etc., etc.
The best way to counter these perceptions is to have in-coming trade delegations from our source markets, so they can see for themselves what Kenya has to offer.
W need to work on changing these negative perceptions of Kenya/Africa, BUT at the same time build up our internal capacity. We cannot do one without the other. Local outsourcing market needs to be developed in tandem with the international.
Peres
Quoting Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>:
Colleagues your comments are right, however we seemed to be more inclined at external perceptions as opposed to building up internal capacity, must it take foreigners to show us our potential?
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:01 AM, munyiva ngea <munyivangea@gmail.com> wrote:
Good morning,
I agree with Peter about perception take Mauritius for example the Board of Investment and the BPO Vendors strive to change the perception of the country as a mere tourist attraction to an ICT Hub. They invite prospective investors or clients to the country take them to their lavish well equipped offices, which are probably located in Ebene Cyber City the landing point of the Submarine cable so the clients are assured of available internet infrastructure.After the site visit the clients are then whisked away to have a fantastic weekend on the beaches or on a boat. Simply put they show clients they can do much more than provide BPO services they can offer quality of life.
To answer Question 3 i think without the government and local vendors taking decisive steps to attract and retain investors and clients to the country. Basically we need to give officials who are marketing the country the funds to be able to invite the prospective investors and clients to the country to show them we sufficient infrastructure and Human resources.
In order to build confidence in the country's capabilities we have to have to EVIDENCE of these capabilities take India for example with its National Skills Registry which is an industry initiative to ensure that individuals employed by organizations have their background and antecedents verified (http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/national-skills-regi-13182.html) prospective clients need only to browse through the site to be assured that the country has the Human resource capacity needed. What about Kenya apart from various websites which allow individuals to upload their CVs where can a prospective client get information on the available agents, software developers and so on?? this information is not available on various institutional websites (universities, colleges) so how do we expect a client to actually believe that we are capable if we are unable to show it (Perception again!!)
-- Best regards Munyiva Ngea
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
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-- Solomon Mburu P.O. Box 19343 - 00202 Nairobi Cell: (+254-0) 735 431041 Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way to the side of a hill! AND It is better to die in dignity than in the ignomity of ambiguous generosity!
Yesterday I was at KENIC.OR.KE and attempted to register a .ke domain. The web site is a joke. They tell you to fill a form that does not exist. Over the past several years I have been coming to Nairobi twice a year and only this year was I able to successfully book a Nairobi hotel online. The rest of the times I am told to fax my details to the manager's secure fax number. I take it the hotels don't manage the websites and they cannot trust those who are hosting websites for them. Once I arrived at the JK Airport went to pick up a car I had reserved online only to be told the agent at the airport had not received my booking and there was no car for me. The company operates two versions of their websites: a .ke and .com; and it seems the two are not synchronized. These may isolated cases but they do add up and create a bad impression about doing business in Kenya. A lot of these shortcomings can be blamed on our own ineptitude. DBL On Fri, 2009-06-05 at 10:14 -0230, Solomon Mburu wrote:
How well do we win the confidence of a local investor if the cost of doing business in Kenya is well beyond the reach of many wananchi? Take for instance registering a company. The process is rather cumbersome and tiring! Then take a look at our diplomatic missions abroad. How many of them use a .ke domain? How many can you point out using secure internet over free email addresses? For confidence to be built, the state should be confident enough with itself!
On 05/06/2009, Jotham Kilimo Mwale <jokilimo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Gilda,
You are right when you say we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. But I think there is something to lose when the focus is too much on international market. We lose the opportunity to develop the domestic market, which, in my view, is one of the basic building block for the BPO sector in terms of capacity building/ experience which in turn will give confidence to the international market.
When we talk of bad publicity for this country hampering the growth/attractiveness of the international BPO market, I believe a vibrant domestic BPO market will counter that (bad image) in a more convincing manner than asking the media to tone down on divisive politics, and will make the work easier for our international marketers.
Also, I think that the move taken by some local companies to have their own in-house call/contact centres rather than outsource is a statement of 'no confidence' on the BPO operators. It has just made marketing Kenya as a BPO destination a little more difficult.
Regards, Jotham
--- On Thu, 6/4/09, godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> wrote:
From: godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks To: jokilimo@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009, 4:59 AM
Peres,
I fully agree with your sentiments. I especially am of the very strong opinion (and I stand stoned by some) that we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. Much as there has been a school of thought that we focus on domestic first, I beg to differ. We need to do so in tandem with the international market. What have we to lose?
Gilda
External perception is absolutely critical in the race to obtain international BPO contracts. No one wants to outsource to a country which they 'percieve' as unstable, or which they percieve as underdeveloped. The truth is that most executives in our source markets for BPO work, in particular USA, percieve Africa as one country with a myriad of ills:
Somalia -Pirates Congo - Wars Darfur- kicking out the Aid organizations, starvation Kenya ? Post Elections Violence Nigeria ? 419 Scams Zimbabwe ? Cholera and Inflation Etc., etc.
The best way to counter these perceptions is to have in-coming trade delegations from our source markets, so they can see for themselves what Kenya has to offer.
W need to work on changing these negative perceptions of Kenya/Africa, BUT at the same time build up our internal capacity. We cannot do one without the other. Local outsourcing market needs to be developed in tandem with the international.
Peres
Quoting Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>:
Colleagues your comments are right, however we seemed to be more inclined at external perceptions as opposed to building up internal capacity, must it take foreigners to show us our potential?
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:01 AM, munyiva ngea <munyivangea@gmail.com> wrote:
Good morning,
I agree with Peter about perception take Mauritius for example the Board of Investment and the BPO Vendors strive to change the perception of the country as a mere tourist attraction to an ICT Hub. They invite prospective investors or clients to the country take them to their lavish well equipped offices, which are probably located in Ebene Cyber City the landing point of the Submarine cable so the clients are assured of available internet infrastructure.After the site visit the clients are then whisked away to have a fantastic weekend on the beaches or on a boat. Simply put they show clients they can do much more than provide BPO services they can offer quality of life.
To answer Question 3 i think without the government and local vendors taking decisive steps to attract and retain investors and clients to the country. Basically we need to give officials who are marketing the country the funds to be able to invite the prospective investors and clients to the country to show them we sufficient infrastructure and Human resources.
In order to build confidence in the country's capabilities we have to have to EVIDENCE of these capabilities take India for example with its National Skills Registry which is an industry initiative to ensure that individuals employed by organizations have their background and antecedents verified (http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/national-skills-regi-13182.html) prospective clients need only to browse through the site to be assured that the country has the Human resource capacity needed. What about Kenya apart from various websites which allow individuals to upload their CVs where can a prospective client get information on the available agents, software developers and so on?? this information is not available on various institutional websites (universities, colleges) so how do we expect a client to actually believe that we are capable if we are unable to show it (Perception again!!)
-- Best regards Munyiva Ngea
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
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Jotham, I agree in a way though let me state where I differ. If you check other countries eg.SA, it is said out there that they have a developed BPO industry and indeed they are way ahead- purely due to their much much larger economy. However we must not lose sight that most of those seats are actually in-house. There are some outsourced centres with large number of seats like Direct Channel but remember the companies took time first to go through the ropes before deciding what to outsource and this does take time, let us be frank,they need to know what they are benchmarking the outsourced services on. We must not think that most of the domestic work in these industries have been outsourced. Most are in-house but ofcourse counted as the industry's seats. Our economy is smaller,we must therefore look both inside and outside if we are looking at those number of jobs created.Otherwise, we will not be creating jobs per se but transferring in-house jobs to third parties. I do not think that is what the Vision 2030 had in mind when saying the industry would create jobs. Gilda Quoting Jotham Kilimo Mwale <jokilimo@yahoo.com>:
Gilda, You are right when you say we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. But I think there is something to lose when the focus is too much on international market. We lose the opportunity to develop the domestic market, which, in my view, is one of the basic building block for the BPO sector in terms of capacity building/ experience which in turn will give confidence to the international market. When we talk of bad publicity for this country hampering the growth/attractiveness of the international BPO market, I believe a vibrant domestic BPO market will counter that (bad image) in a more convincing manner than asking the media to tone down on divisive politics, and will make the work easier for our international marketers. Also, I think that the move taken by some local companies to have their own in-house call/contact centres rather than outsource is a statement of 'no confidence' on the BPO operators. It has just made marketing Kenya as a BPO destination a little more difficult. Regards, Jotham
--- On Thu, 6/4/09, godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> wrote:
From: godera@skyweb.co.ke <godera@skyweb.co.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks To: jokilimo@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009, 4:59 AM
Peres,
I fully agree with your sentiments. I especially am of the very strong opinion (and I stand stoned by some) that we must develop both domestic and international markets in tandem. Much as there has been a school of thought that we focus on domestic first, I beg to differ. We need to do so in tandem with the international market. What have we to lose?
Gilda
External perception is absolutely critical in the race to obtain international BPO contracts. No one wants to outsource to a country which they 'percieve' as unstable, or which they percieve as underdeveloped. The truth is that most executives in our source markets for BPO work, in particular USA, percieve Africa as one country with a myriad of ills:
Somalia -Pirates Congo - Wars Darfur- kicking out the Aid organizations, starvation Kenya ? Post Elections Violence Nigeria ? 419 Scams Zimbabwe ? Cholera and Inflation Etc., etc.
The best way to counter these perceptions is to have in-coming trade delegations from our source markets, so they can see for themselves what Kenya has to offer.
W need to work on changing these negative perceptions of Kenya/Africa, BUT at the same time build up our internal capacity. We cannot do one without the other. Local outsourcing market needs to be developed in tandem with the international.
Peres
Quoting Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack@gmail.com>:
Colleagues your comments are right, however we seemed to be more
inclined
at
external perceptions as opposed to building up internal capacity, must it take foreigners to show us our potential?
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:01 AM, munyiva ngea <munyivangea@gmail.com> wrote:
Good morning,
I agree with Peter about perception take Mauritius for example the Board of Investment and the BPO Vendors strive to change the perception of the country as a mere tourist attraction to an ICT Hub. They invite prospective investors or clients to the country take them to their lavish well equipped offices, which are probably located in Ebene Cyber City the landing point of the Submarine cable so the clients are assured of available internet infrastructure.After the site visit the clients are then whisked away to have a fantastic weekend on the beaches or on a boat. Simply put they show clients they can do much more than provide BPO services they can offer quality of life.
To answer Question 3 i think without the government and local vendors taking decisive steps to attract and retain investors and clients to the country. Basically we need to give officials who are marketing the country the funds to be able to invite the prospective investors and clients to the country to show them we sufficient infrastructure and Human resources.
In order to build confidence in the country's capabilities we have to have to EVIDENCE of these capabilities take India for example with its National Skills Registry which is an industry initiative to ensure that individuals employed by organizations have their background and antecedents verified
(http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/national-skills-regi-13182.html)
prospective clients need only to browse through the site to be assured that the country has the Human resource capacity needed. What about Kenya apart from various websites which allow individuals to upload their CVs where can a prospective client get information on the available agents, software developers and so on?? this information is not available on various institutional websites (universities, colleges) so how do we expect a client to actually believe that we are capable if we are unable to show it (Perception again!!)
-- Best regards Munyiva Ngea
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
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participants (4)
-
godera＠skyweb.co.ke -
Jotham Kilimo Mwale -
Luvisia Bakuli -
Solomon Mburu