Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Kenya as Outsourcing Destination
    Kenya as Outsourcing Destination
    Kenya as Outsourcing Destination
    Ebook178 pages1 hour

    Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

    By Gachago Gachago

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    While the offshore outsourcing Industry has been dominated by India, China and countries in Central Europe and Southeast Asia, deteriorating cost advantages, improved labour quality and state-of-the art infrastructure are driving a dramatic shift in the geography of the industry. New players like Kenya are entering the field and challenging the existing players for a piece of the offshore outsourcing cake.

    Kenya boasts a big pool of English-speaking professionals and its government has invested millions to improve its telecommunications infrastructure. Once some teething problems are addressed, Kenya could be one of the world's fastest developing outsourcing destinations due to its relatively low costs, and near shore status for European and Middle Eastern companies, putting it on par with its IT services competitors on the continent including South Africa, Mauritius, Egypt and Ghana. The East African nation could become a preferred destination for call centre and smaller business process outsourcing contracts.

    This study provides a general overview of the current activities and issues related to the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in Kenya. It considers a number of indicators from various secondary sources in order to assess Kenya’s attractiveness as an outsourcing destination. It identifies the country’s competitive strengths and weaknesses, identifies a strategic direction and lays out a series of recommendations which must be implemented in the short-term.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGachago Gachago
    Release dateApr 23, 2013
    ISBN9781301074488
    Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

    Related to Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

    Related ebooks

    Business For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rebranding The Definition Of Impact And Luxury In Lagos

      Aug 2, 2021

      When you think about luxury properties in the world, places like London, New York and Dubai come to mind. However, it is one man’s dream to bring Lagos, Nigeria, on the same luxury destination list. Thirty-year-old Adetola Nola has a big vision for t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tigray War

      Nov 12, 2021

      Who is fighting in Ethiopia? Ethiopian forces and their allies have been fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the northern region, for just over a year. The conflict developed rapidly after the government side, wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      Nerves Of Steel

      Mar 26, 2020

      Nerves Of Steel
      4 min read

    • Article

      Talent Outsourcing

      May 29, 2023

      Talent Outsourcing
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dial India For It

      Nov 25, 2021

      Infosys Chief Operating Officer U.B. Pravin Rao is retiring on a baffled note, it seems. “This is a very unusual phenomenon… [I have been] in the industry for over 35 years, I cannot yet think of a time when we have seen this kind of thing,” he said

      6 min read

    • Article

      Big Bang 2.0

      Jul 9, 2020

      Big Bang 2.0
      6 min read

    • Article

      Arnab PANDEY

      Apr 1, 2021

      Arnab PANDEY
      11 min read

    • Article

      Resilience At IT’s Best

      Apr 15, 2021

      Resilience At IT’s Best
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bpo 3.0

      Mar 19, 2018

      Bpo 3.0
      5 min read

    • Article

      Join The Revolution

      Nov 4, 2022

      Join The Revolution
      8 min read

    • Article

      Future Of Work

      Oct 20, 2021

      Future Of Work
      2 min read

    • Article

      Jobs Are Back

      Jun 24, 2022

      Jobs Are Back
      10 min read

    • Article

      Innovation Grows Software

      Mar 8, 2019

      Innovation Grows Software
      8 min read

    • Article

      On To New Domains

      Apr 2, 2020

      On To New Domains
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Digital Direction 2020

      Jun 25, 2020

      The Digital Direction 2020
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Next Chapter In The Start-up Growth Story

      Aug 19, 2021

      India’s start-up ecosystem is a global success story where the synergies and active collaboration across geographies have contributed significantly. The country’s start-ups have even defied all odds brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Indian te

      5 min read

    • Article

      Revving Up

      Dec 12, 2019

      Revving Up
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Digital Organisation

      May 27, 2022

      The Digital Organisation
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Kenya as Outsourcing Destination - Gachago Gachago

      Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

      Current status, strengths, weaknesses and future trends

      By

      Gachago Gachago

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      * * * * *

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Gachago Gachago on Smashwords

      Copyright ©2010

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      1 About This Study

      1.1 Methodology

      1.2 Definitions

      1.3 Scope

      2 Overview

      3 Country, Political, and Economic Profile

      3.1 Basic Data

      3.2 People of Kenya

      3.3 Economic Profile

      3.4 Political Profile

      4 Foreign Relations

      5 Location Attractiveness / Infrastructure

      5.1 Telecommunications and Internet

      5.2 Power

      5.3 Transport

      5.4 Real Estate

      6 Business Environment

      6.1 Ease of doing business

      6.2 Incorporation and related requirements

      6.3 Revenue, Tax, and Repatriation Issues

      6.4 Investment Policy and Incentives

      6.5 Legal and Enforcement Issues

      7 People Attractiveness

      7.1 People and skills – availability

      7.2 People and skills – suitability

      7.3 People and skills – HR cost

      8 Local and Expatriate Labour

      8.1 Labour Laws

      8.2 Expatriate Worker’s Permits

      8.3 Quality of Life

      9 Regional Markets

      10 BPO Industry in Kenya today

      10.1 The Major Industry Players

      10.2 Industry Associations

      11 Government Agencies Giving Support to Outsourcing

      12 Competing Countries

      13 SWOT Assessment

      13.1 Strengths

      13.2 Weaknesses

      13.3 Opportunities

      13.4 Threats

      13.5 Other issues

      14 Recommendations

      15 Bibliography

      16 Appendix

      16.1 Contact Details

      Abbreviations and Acronyms

      About This Study

      1.1Methodology

      The attractiveness of a nation as an outsourcing destination depends on the ICT and other supporting infrastructure available, the skill levels of the people and their availability, and the business environment.

      In this study, a framework comprising of qualitative and quantitative assessment was followed. Parameters pertaining to outsourcing were carefully selected from reputed international studies. The data collected was combined with other multi-faceted observations, which cannot be directly measured, and used to analyze the current situation and future prospects regarding Infrastructure, People and Skills and Business Environment and sub elements of these aspects. This approach is adapted from the CyberMedia Research Methodology [1].

      The following qualitative aspects important in attracting a potential investor coming to the country to set up an outsourcing operation have been analysed by survey of literature—Internet search and various secondary sources:

      Country, Political and Economic Profile.

      Foreign Relations.

      Location Attractiveness / Infrastructure.

      Business Environment.

      People Attractiveness

      Local and Expatriate Labour

      Regional Markets

      BPO industry in Kenya today

      Government Agencies Giving Support to Outsourcing

      Competing Countries

      References to data sources have been made as far as possible. During the course of research for this study, I have visited many different websites of varying quality and read articles from a number of different magazines and newspapers. Statistics quoted in these sources are not always consistent and it is not always possible to confirm the accuracy of the data. I have avoided unreliable sources, statistics that are out-of-date and websites that do not appear to be actively maintained.

      1.2Definitions

      In this rapidly developing field, terminology is still evolving. The following definitions have been adopted within this study:

      The term Business process outsourcing (BPO) came into being around 1995. It generally refers to the operation of letting out the task of performing certain functions of an enterprise to another enterprise, often a third party and, in some cases, a subsidiary of its own. These functions are usually non-strategic and non-core in nature though they can be very critical for a business enterprise.

      Outsourcing of some activities to a distant location has become possible due to the development of information and communication technology (ICT). Such cross-border IT-based services, usually termed IT enabled services, are functions that are provided from one location to another over telecommunication or data networks (through wire line or wireless devices) and are either externally contracted (third party outsourcing) or provided by a remote subsidiary of the same company (captive BPO).

      There are two primary types of BPO:

      Back Office Outsourcing which includes internal business functions and typical back office, for example:

      Billing

      Purchasing

      Multimedia & Animation

      Bookkeeping and Accounting services

      Financial service processing and operations

      Payroll management

      Market research

      Business consulting

      CAD/CAM

      Research and Development (R&D)

      Data entry

      Desk Top Publishing (DTP)

      Typesetting

      Handwriting services

      Human Resources management

      Legal services

      Proofreading

      Editing / Document Processing

      Software & Technology

      Transcription

      Web design & web development

      Writing & Translation.

      Front Office Outsourcing which includes customer-related services such as:

      Call and contact centres

      Email and chat-based customer service

      Airline ticketing

      Technical Support

      Marketing

      Advertising

      In outsourcing literature three terminologies are used as below, depending upon the distance of outsourced location from the parent company.

      Onshore outsourcing: When an enterprise outsources its activities to another company located in the same country.

      Near-shore outsourcing: When activities are outsourced to a neighbouring country.

      Offshore outsourcing: When business processes are outsourced to a remote or far off country.

      While on-shore and near-shore outsourcing existed from long ago, offshore activities are gaining momentum only in recent years. Manufacturing industries have been off-shoring to lower-cost destinations for 30 years or more, however it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that service industries started sending significant portions of work offshore.

      BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) has evolved and given birth to a child named KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing). Some experts say that KPO is not different from BPO. It is only a kind of BPO.

      Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) is defined as the allocation of relatively high-level tasks to an outside organization or a different group (possibly in a different geographic location) within the same organization. KPO is, essentially, high-end business process outsourcing (BPO). However, the term KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) hasn't yet fully caught on in the media or elsewhere.

      Some of typical KPO services include intellectual property research, animation & simulation services, data research & analytics, litigation Services, medical content & services, pharmaceuticals

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1