Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
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
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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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
I agree Peres the end result is that it makes most of the Africans appear helpless or "Charity Cases" my concern is how do we build confidence, the Kind displayed by our athletes ? Regards On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Peres Were <pwere@cascadegl.com> wrote:
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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This message was sent to: otieno.barrack@gmail.com Unsubscribe or change your options at
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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
-- 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
Thumbs up Peres! I support your point because even if we put together the best Outsourcing Frameworks (Legal, Regulatory, QA.) in the world, our 'bad reputation' (alongside most other African countries) will obscure the frameworks. We need an effective public relations entity that can help counter the perception and market Kenya's uniqueness (?). Northern Ireland did it! Egypt is doing it! Our EAC partner, Rwanda is also doing it. In simple words, as the bad stories (how corrupt(?) our Government officials are, Mungiki massacre,.) trickle to the international limelight, can we also 'flood' the FACTS ( news of how educated Kenyans are, good/affordable hotels, the upcoming undersea cable,...) about Kenya . Am sure right now the fact that Delta Airlines did not land here as expected, a few potential outsourcing clients have developed cold feet; the wrong (Kenya is insecure!) message is out there. Some may actually not know that there are 10s of flights leaving/coming to Kenya to/from most destinations of the world! We for sure know that Kenya is a good country and that is why many people from other countries choose to settle here after experiencing this goodness even for a short period. The question is, just who will tell the world the good side about Kenya? Our media perhaps can help. I was thrilled to see the Nation Newspaper headlines amongst those being reviewed on SKY-News; I wished the headline on that day (it was; 'Ministers' Joyride for 5-minute UN speech'!) was different though. Our missions abroad (embassies and high commissions) can also help. South Africa and Philippines are utilizing the latter effectively. For example, you can more easily lose your life to armed criminals in the streets of Johannesburg than in Nairobi but investors have been convinced (through focused publicity) to outsource there (Johannesburg). Cheers, Muthoni Masinde -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Peres Were Sent: 04 June 2009 11:06 To: muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions,Legal and Regulatory Frameworks 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
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/muthoni%40uonbi.ac.ke ----------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard. University of Nairobi Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard. University of Nairobi Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As you may have noted from the "Brand Kenya Initiative" branding the BPO aspect of Kenya will need a choir rather than a solo performer. We learnt that same lesson at Made in Kenya. HOW? We may have the ICT Board tie in ICT / BPO as part of the Brand Kenya musical perfomance. The song must appeal to Kenyans at home and in the diaspora. Both formal channels (Diplomatic missions) and informal channels (mwananchi) should be applied in selling Kenya. REFERENCES Then again, the best sales path is "word of mouth". Give the people who have something good to day about Kenya an audience. Ignore the naysayers as much as possible. Am sure media houses such as K24 TV (apologies for the obvious bias ;-) ) would be happy to engage in the branding efforts. EMBRACING INFORMAL STRUCTURES (?) We may want to use 'informal' channels on the internet more strategically. These range from social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc) to YouTube and 'infiltrating' fora that overplay negative news on Kenya. Even CNN gets its hard & soft news from such channels. Overall, I support a formal 'framework' from GoK but the pace of achieving one is so slow that informal structures will continue to dominate our "brand" unless we embrace them e.g. Let's get the message on Youtube... TEST CASE "Send short positive videos from your mobile phone via MMS or email to bpo@madeinkenya.org and we'll have them immeadiately uploaded onto youtube at http://youtube.com/madeinkenya " Wainaina On 6/4/09, muthoni masinde <muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke> wrote:
Thumbs up Peres! I support your point because even if we put together the best Outsourcing Frameworks (Legal, Regulatory, QA.) in the world, our 'bad reputation' (alongside most other African countries) will obscure the frameworks. We need an effective public relations entity that can help counter the perception and market Kenya's uniqueness (?). Northern Ireland did it! Egypt is doing it! Our EAC partner, Rwanda is also doing it. In simple words, as the bad stories (how corrupt(?) our Government officials are, Mungiki massacre,.) trickle to the international limelight, can we also 'flood' the FACTS ( news of how educated Kenyans are, good/affordable hotels, the upcoming undersea cable,...) about Kenya . Am sure right now the fact that Delta Airlines did not land here as expected, a few potential outsourcing clients have developed cold feet; the wrong (Kenya is insecure!) message is out there. Some may actually not know that there are 10s of flights leaving/coming to Kenya to/from most destinations of the world! We for sure know that Kenya is a good country and that is why many people from other countries choose to settle here after experiencing this goodness even for a short period.
The question is, just who will tell the world the good side about Kenya? Our media perhaps can help. I was thrilled to see the Nation Newspaper headlines amongst those being reviewed on SKY-News; I wished the headline on that day (it was; 'Ministers' Joyride for 5-minute UN speech'!) was different though. Our missions abroad (embassies and high commissions) can also help. South Africa and Philippines are utilizing the latter effectively. For example, you can more easily lose your life to armed criminals in the streets of Johannesburg than in Nairobi but investors have been convinced (through focused publicity) to outsource there (Johannesburg).
Cheers, Muthoni Masinde
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Peres Were Sent: 04 June 2009 11:06 To: muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions,Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
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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----------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED
The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard.
University of Nairobi Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
----------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED
The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard.
University of Nairobi Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-- Sent from my mobile device --- http://www.bungesms.com http://www.madeinkenya.org
I hear you Wainaina but maybe you could go further to help Walu by saying how this choir can ensure it is singing in the right key... from the same sheet of music. This feeds into the day 3 discussion that he is not conducting on institutional framework. Take a step into the next day and build onto what you have written as there is something interesting developing here........ Nyaki ________________________________ From: Wainaina Mungai <wainaina@madeinkenya.org> To: elizaslider@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 1:26:13 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks As you may have noted from the "Brand Kenya Initiative" branding the BPO aspect of Kenya will need a choir rather than a solo performer. We learnt that same lesson at Made in Kenya. HOW? We may have the ICT Board tie in ICT / BPO as part of the Brand Kenya musical perfomance. The song must appeal to Kenyans at home and in the diaspora. Both formal channels (Diplomatic missions) and informal channels (mwananchi) should be applied in selling Kenya. REFERENCES Then again, the best sales path is "word of mouth". Give the people who have something good to day about Kenya an audience. Ignore the naysayers as much as possible. Am sure media houses such as K24 TV (apologies for the obvious bias ;-) ) would be happy to engage in the branding efforts. EMBRACING INFORMAL STRUCTURES (?) We may want to use 'informal' channels on the internet more strategically. These range from social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc) to YouTube and 'infiltrating' fora that overplay negative news on Kenya. Even CNN gets its hard & soft news from such channels. Overall, I support a formal 'framework' from GoK but the pace of achieving one is so slow that informal structures will continue to dominate our "brand" unless we embrace them e.g. Let's get the message on Youtube... TEST CASE "Send short positive videos from your mobile phone via MMS or email to bpo@madeinkenya.org and we'll have them immeadiately uploaded onto youtube at http://youtube.com/madeinkenya " Wainaina On 6/4/09, muthoni masinde <muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke> wrote:
Thumbs up Peres! I support your point because even if we put together the best Outsourcing Frameworks (Legal, Regulatory, QA.) in the world, our 'bad reputation' (alongside most other African countries) will obscure the frameworks. We need an effective public relations entity that can help counter the perception and market Kenya's uniqueness (?). Northern Ireland did it! Egypt is doing it! Our EAC partner, Rwanda is also doing it. In simple words, as the bad stories (how corrupt(?) our Government officials are, Mungiki massacre,.) trickle to the international limelight, can we also 'flood' the FACTS ( news of how educated Kenyans are, good/affordable hotels, the upcoming undersea cable,...) about Kenya . Am sure right now the fact that Delta Airlines did not land here as expected, a few potential outsourcing clients have developed cold feet; the wrong (Kenya is insecure!) message is out there. Some may actually not know that there are 10s of flights leaving/coming to Kenya to/from most destinations of the world! We for sure know that Kenya is a good country and that is why many people from other countries choose to settle here after experiencing this goodness even for a short period.
The question is, just who will tell the world the good side about Kenya? Our media perhaps can help. I was thrilled to see the Nation Newspaper headlines amongst those being reviewed on SKY-News; I wished the headline on that day (it was; 'Ministers' Joyride for 5-minute UN speech'!) was different though. Our missions abroad (embassies and high commissions) can also help. South Africa and Philippines are utilizing the latter effectively. For example, you can more easily lose your life to armed criminals in the streets of Johannesburg than in Nairobi but investors have been convinced (through focused publicity) to outsource there (Johannesburg).
Cheers, Muthoni Masinde
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Peres Were Sent: 04 June 2009 11:06 To: muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions,Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
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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I am in area with bad Internet access. I am therefore running late in catching up with discussions but I am compelled to agree with Muthoni. The latest kid in the block is Brand Kenya Board. This is a good initiative. However, if the Government works in the same way it has always worked (no evidence that anything has changed), we may still end up with the plethora of bodies selling Kenya for different things (BPO, ICT, tourism, FDI, etc.) communicating different messages, duplicating each others roles, etc. and failing to do the most important thing - building very positive perceptions about Kenya, consistently. As for the 4th estate, any efforts to convince them to de-emphasize politics has fallen on deaf ears. Can we focus on the consumers of the media outputs? My few cents tim On Thu, 2009-06-04 at 12:12 +0300, muthoni masinde wrote:
Thumbs up Peres! I support your point because even if we put together the best Outsourcing Frameworks (Legal, Regulatory, QA…) in the world, our ‘bad reputation’ (alongside most other African countries) will obscure the frameworks. We need an effective public relations entity that can help counter the perception and market Kenya’s uniqueness (?). Northern Ireland did it! Egypt is doing it! Our EAC partner, Rwanda is also doing it. In simple words, as the bad stories (how corrupt(?) our Government officials are, Mungiki massacre,…) trickle to the international limelight, can we also ‘flood’ the FACTS ( news of how educated Kenyans are, good/affordable hotels, the upcoming undersea cable,...) about Kenya … Am sure right now the fact that Delta Airlines did not land here as expected, a few potential outsourcing clients have developed cold feet; the wrong (Kenya is insecure!) message is out there. Some may actually not know that there are 10s of flights leaving/coming to Kenya to/from most destinations of the world! We for sure know that Kenya is a good country and that is why many people from other countries choose to settle here after experiencing this goodness even for a short period.
The question is, just who will tell the world the good side about Kenya? Our media perhaps can help. I was thrilled to see the Nation Newspaper headlines amongst those being reviewed on SKY-News; I wished the headline on that day (it was; ‘Ministers’ Joyride for 5-minute UN speech’!) was different though. Our missions abroad (embassies and high commissions) can also help. South Africa and Philippines are utilizing the latter effectively. For example, you can more easily lose your life to armed criminals in the streets of Johannesburg than in Nairobi but investors have been convinced (through focused publicity) to outsource there (Johannesburg).
Cheers,
Muthoni Masinde
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+muthoni=uonbi.ac.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Peres Were Sent: 04 June 2009 11:06 To: muthoni@uonbi.ac.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 of 10:-BPO discussions,Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
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
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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and is believed to be clean.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED
The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all
its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance
from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality
Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard.
University of Nairobi Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
----------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed t o be clean. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IS ISO CERTIFIED
The University of Nairobi is committed to providing quality services to all its clients. The University will monitor and review its quality performance from time to time through an effective implementation of the Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000 standard.
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Dear All, Although I'm coming rather belated on this, I have this analogy in the BPO sector. Assume I work for radio station X and I want to make an urgent announcement or event on radio. My radio station has packaged the same programmes as I want to make but due to the reach of the target, radio Y comes in handy. I very well understand that the editorial policy of my radio station is clear, say, an employee should not promote the any other radio station, either in official or personal capacity, and going against that, has stringent repercussions including a sack. As an employee (whether a senior or subordinate), it would take a lojng time to have the station reach the masses as I want (the regulations, politics, etc) within the shortest time possible. In order for the message to be relayed within the time limit, I either (through a proxy) go to radio Y and have it aired or use my radio station as long as the message is delivered, then I shouldn't worry about the target audience. However, if I convince my radio station's management to either outsource or expand the existing reach of audience and they buy my argument, then we would be marketing both our company and the other 'rival' company, as long as the end justifies the means! What I'm trying to drive home is for the BPO to work in Kenya, there has to be some strong policies in the sector, which will not only be definitive on the roles of key (and minor) players. too, but also benefit the local community in understanding the importance of the sector. Another thing, as someone has pointed out, is *confidence*. How many of us are really confident enough to initiate an innovative project, if the government does not invest in the project? This confidence again, should not be directed towards the foreign investors more than the local investors, because having confidence with the former, loses the importance of local investors in adapting changes that are found within their reach. 2009/6/4 Peres Were <pwere@cascadegl.com>
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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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 (9)
-
Barrack Otieno -
Catherine Adeya -
godera＠skyweb.co.ke -
munyiva ngea -
muthoni masinde -
Peres Were -
Prof. Waema -
Solomon Mburu -
Wainaina Mungai