Kenya as Outsourcing Destination
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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.
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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