Go BackWhy should a Contact Centre offshore to Egypt?
Xceed Contact Center is the largest and most sophisticated Contact Center in the southern Mediterranean region. We are an Egyptian-based provider of intergrated customer contact solutions to commercial and government clients worldwide.
Recent news that the UK insurance group Norwich Union is planning to cut up to 4,000 jobs as part of a large-scale offshoring scheme has brought the issues of relocating contact centre operations abroad to attention once again. There is a large choice of potential locations for offshore sites, and there are still many organisations that are unaware of the benefits that can be achieved and what to look for when planning an outsourcing process.
What are the factors to look for when considering offshoring?
According to Datamonitor, the business information service, in its July 2006 Critical Assessment of Egyptian Outsourcing Providers report, there are four key determining factors that companies need to consider when planning an outsourcing operation:
The cost of labour - Considered the strongest determining factor, labour-cost reductions are usually the driving force behind a company's decision to outsource. Depending on the location, a dramatic fall in workforce costs can be expected, sometimes as much as 50per cent per agent.
Availability of an educated and skilled workforce - It is essential to ensure offshore contact centres are staffed with highly educated and skilled workforces. Despite many preconceptions of inadequacy in offshore contact centres, agents can deal with a raft of other activities such as customer queries, customer problems, telemarketing, telesales and market research issues.
Potential government subsidies - Organisations look to offshore in countries that are able to support their customer service sector with benefits such as tax breaks, free trade zones and subsidies. A government that pursues such policies therefore makes their country a highly competitive option for potential offshoring.
Access to a multi-lingual workforce - Multilingual capabilities and accent-neutral agents are crucial to a company looking to develop its customer service division. Difficult accents and overly formal vocabularies are regular customer complaints in the UK.
How would outsourcing to Egypt be beneficial to an organisation?
As a potential location for offshore contact centres, Egypt has become a recognised world leader - a fact backed up by a recent AT Kearney services location guide in which Egypt was ranked in 12th place globally. Significantly, among Middle Eastern and African states, Egypt tops the rankings on key factors such as financial structure, skilled labour pools and business environment. The July 2006 Datamonitor report shows Egypt as one of the fastest growing outsourcing locations anywhere with a total compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 36 per cent. There are a number of reasons why organisations are turning to Egypt to outsource their services:
Cost - Egypt is one of the least expensive locations in which to house a contact centre, since suitable commercial real estate is easily found and competitive agent wages are 54 per cent of that of a US customer agent. In their report, Datamonitor spoke to a number of investors who felt that the cost/quality ratio found in Egypt is among the best anywhere in the world.
A large and skilled labour pool - Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Egyptian economy is the availability of a large, highly educated labour pool. The minimum requirement for call centre employment is a college degree and with Egypt producing 200,000 graduates (80,000 with IT engineering degrees) labour supply is extremely healthy. New graduates can then go to train in the new Egyptian Call Centre Academy. This trains 800-1000 students a year who undertake courses in language, telesales, customer service and cultural sensitivity skills.
Agent dexterity - Due to the fact that university education is taught in French, English and German, Egypt's agent pool is linguistically rich and the country is known for its proficiency in European languages. This factor makes Egypt's workforce unique amongst other potential offshoring countries where the proportion of English-speaking agents within a labour pool is usually very low and intensive training is often required to meet basic standards. Additionally, Egyptians speak a form of Arabic which is widely perceived to be the most neutral and comprehensible across the entire Arab world.
Continued government support ensures higher standards and a competitive advantage - The Egyptian government has consistently made substantial efforts to make Egypt the leading location of choice for contact centre outsourcing. Key initiatives include the flotation of the Egyptian pound on global currency markets, labour law changes to provide increased worker flexibility, the privatisation of the telephone network and numerous tax breaks for corporations. There has also been a continued emphasis on public security and according to Datamonitor research, the US Commercial Department recently rated Egypt's security atmosphere as excellent.
What are the key differentiators when selecting an Egyptian outsourcer
Xceed Contact Center is the largest and most sophisticated contact centre facility in the southern Mediterranean region. Founded in 2001, it has become renowned as an industry leader offering inbound and outbound integrated customer contact solutions that range from Telemarketing, Technical support, CRM Services, Order/Complaints Handling and Telesales. It also offers Market Research and other value-added services such as customer retention programmes. In June 2006, Xceed was named the Middle East Call Centre Outstanding Service Provider of the Year in Dubai. Xceed's level of success in the sector has been attributed to a number of key differentiators:
Investment in high quality agents - Xceed has always maintained a high standard in its staff. Recruits must be university-educated and speak a minimum of two languages fluently. Once hired, they undergo an extensive core training programme covering areas such as accent/cross-cultural training, brand awareness, business writing and skills training, soft-skills, technical and leadership techniques, and the latest cross/up-selling techniques.
Excellent facilities - Xceed contact centre facilities are among the best anywhere in the world, due to considerable investment in construction, information technology and capacity. The specialist 16,000 square metre contact centre facility is based in Cairo's prestigious Smart Village technology park and houses a state-of-the art data centre and equipment room, a central security room, modular partitioning, UPS systems and back-up generators. Xceed's commitment to the best practice technology means that it uses the latest Avaya and Cisco hardware for all its call routing and data networking.
High standards - Xceed has a clear commitment to environmental quality standards. It recently obtained ISO 14001: 2004 Environmental Management Standard and OHSAS 18001:1999 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Certifications. Xceed is dedicated to reach the highest environmental standards in the world, covering waste management, emission levels and occupational health and safety to ensure its agents work in a healthy and safe environment. It is also committed to providing the highest levels of customer service. Xceed is the first and only Customer Operations Performance Centre to be certified in Africa, Middle East and the Southern European continent. The certification conferred by the Customer Operations Performance Centre (COPC) Inc certifies that Xceed received customers receive prompt professional information support and services. Xceed demonstrated a high operational performance in planning, service, quality and efficiency.
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