The outsourcing and contact centre East Africa conference opened in Nairobi today with a call on Kenya and the rest of the East African region to develop skills that can provide value for the companies venturing into outsourcing. Speaking on the Asian experience, Bobby Varanasi, CEO of the Malaysia-based Matryzel Consulting and Board Member of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals called on the development of people skills to make the industry more competitive. He also underscored the importance of regional integration as a key pillar to the growth of the industry. He observed that development of talent was critical factor in a thriving BPO industry but warned that the companies outsourcing sought for a myriad of values from its service providers.

“Creation of skill is important but value of the skills to the offering of services has a great impact to the outsourcing company. India realized that development skills was not enough and ventured into offering value for their clients”, he said.

Varanasi defines value for the BPO industry as providing services beyond voice and venturing into technological solutions which most companies are now seeking.
He challenged the industry to move away from being just a contact centre to technology solution service providers in order to make their business sustainable and viable at the global level.

With convergence of applications on the mobile phones, Varansi challenged the industry to be cognisant of the fast global technology trends that are taking course in order to stay relevant in service provision.

“Cloud outsourcing is today the next level and therefore the industry should be aware of the changing trends in the technology space in order to meet the market needs.”

In his opening remarks, Paul Kukubo, CEO, Kenya ICT Board, challenged the corporate sector to appreciate and see the need to begin outsourcing locally and avoid the assumption that their services were inferior. He pointed out that there were potential micro-businesses in Kenya that provided software support for multinational solution providers such as Oracle, SAP and VMware that needed economic stimulus packages to make them more effective in the global market.

Kukubo underscored the need to compliment education with experience to advance on the development of skills relevant for the outsourcing market. At the same time, he urged the BPO industry to leverage on its resources to secure the untapped markets in the region since each market has its own unique needs. He advised the industry to take advantage of the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others to market their services and emphasized the need for the local BPOs to create collaborations and partnerships with prominent outsourcing regions like South Africa and the United Kingdom in order to meet international standards.

Jerry Durrant, Chairman of the US-based International institute for Outsource Management appealed to the Kenyan government to address International Property Rights (IPR) and legal systems in order to give incentives to the BPO industry. He called for close collaboration with other nations in order to address IPR issues.

“For Kenya to succeed in this industry, cross collaboration, including mergers, is paramount”, he said. However, he acknowledged that emerging markets still have to contend with challenges, including weak legal systems, insufficient investment and a dearth of tax incentives. But Kenya could turn out to be a niche market, given that it has a committed and trainable workforce. Durant urged  the BPO industry in the region to effectively market their brands since branding reflected on the core values of the business like service offered, delivery attributes and relationship value.

The two-day conference—held under the theme, ‘Seize the opportunity’—was organised by AITEC Africa and held under the auspices of the Kenya ICT Board.