Telkom’s big contract offers call centre firms a lifeline
October 29, 2008

September 18, 2008: Kenya’s business process organisations (BPO) — long confined to international clientele for lack of local buyers of their services — made a big leap in the domestic market on Wednesday after Telkom Kenya announced that it had contracted out its customer service operations to Kencall.

Kencall, one of Kenya’s oldest BPOs, will manage consumers of Telkom’s mobile phone services that were officially launched on Wednesday. Telkom’s move should be a big boost to growth in the budding industry that has been under threat from inability to compete against rivals on the international platform due to high cost of bandwidth.

Operators have argued that the survival of the industry depends on the ability to attract big corporate clients on the domestic scene to enable them gain the financial muscle and technical competence they need to compete internationally.

The sector has been lobbying local corporations to look its way for non-core business solutions instead of spending a fortune setting up internal departments to handle tasks such as answering to customer queries and complaints.

Despite the vast potential Kenya has as the global outsourcing hub, lack of affordable and efficient gateway to the outside world has dampened its appeal overseas.

Article by:
http://www.bdafrica.com
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10136&Itemid=5847


Kencall bags an ICT award
October 27, 2008

Kencall, the largest call center in Kenya has bagged the prestigious award of the Non-European Call Centre of the Year at the European Call Center Awards, 2008. The glamorous 2008 European Call Center Awards was held in Birmingham, UK. Kencall emerged the winner after beating three others finalists - 24-7 (India) who were also the winners of the award last year, EMP Marketing and Promotion (UAE) and Vodacom (South Africa). Nick Nesbit, Managing director Kencall received the award before a crowd of over 1,000 people drawn from the prestigious European Call Centre Industry, confirming that Kenya is indeed a real contender in this multibillion dollar industry and is a world class call centre. Mr. Paul Kukubo, CEO Kenya ICT Board said that Kencall has outperformed some of the world’s top BPO industry players. "Kencall has demonstrated to the world that the Kenya BPO product stands for quality, and value. This is a victory for the industry and the country on the whole. We would like to congratulate them for achieving this notable fete and we would like to reiterate our support for all the industry players."

Business process Outsourcing ( BPO) is the contracting of a third party to perform non-core functions e.g. call centre, data entry so as gain some competitive advantage such as cost saving.

The main worldwide recognized BPO hubs have traditionally been Asian countries. The government identified BPO as one of the six pillars of Kenya’s economy and the development of the industry is one of Kenya ICT Boards key mandates.

Kencall will also manage consumers of Telkom’s mobile phone services that were officially launched on Wednesday. Telkom’s move should be a big boost to growth in the budding industry that has been under threat from inability to compete against rivals on the international platform due to high cost of bandwidth. Operators have argued that the survival of the industry depends on the ability to attract big corporate clients on the domestic scene to enable them gain the financial muscle and technical competence they need to compete internationally.

Article by:
http://www.kenyatimesonline.com/
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The World Bank - ICT and the BPO Industry in Kenya
October 27, 2008

Business Process Outsourcing is an emerging industry in Africa. This film looks at the various issues and opportunities facing the BPO sector in Kenya from the perspectives of one of Kenya's BPO CEO and three young women entrepreneurs who created a BPO start-up. A pressing challenge affecting the competitiveness of Africa's BPO companies is the cost of high speed connectivity.

The World Bank's US$424 million Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) aims to address this issue by extending access to affordable high speed connectivity to as many as 25 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

KenCall was voted the Top Non European call centre at the CCF European Call Centre awards ceremony in Birmingham.
September 16, 2008

On Tuesday September 16th, 2008, KenCall was voted the Top Non European call centre at the CCF European Call Centre awards ceremony in Birmingham, UK, at the world's largest industry conference. Beating out many international industry giants in the competition, KenCall has demonstrated that it has grown to compete with the best players in the world despite being in the industry only a few years. This prestigious award recognizes KenCall's excellence in delivering service and support to its clients and employees and its pioneering spirit in developing the BPO/ Call Centre industry from scratch in Kenya against all odds.

"Chief Executive, Nicholas Nesbitt (L) and Chief Operations Officer, Eric Nesbitt (R) proudly displaying their trophy"

CCF European Call Centre Awards in the UK.
August 10, 2008

KenCall is proud to announce that it has been selected as a Finalist by the CCF European Call Centre Awards in the UK. KenCall made it as one of the 4 finalists in the Top Non-European Call Centre award category. Out of a very long list of candidates KenCall is competing with Vodacom South Africa, 24/7 Customer (a 35,000 person Indian call centre) and the largest call centre in the Emirates, EMP, for the honors of the top outsourcing company outside of Europe.

Judges will fly in to Nairobi from the UK in August to conduct an in depth discovery session with KenCall. The results will be announced in Birmingham at the show on September 16th. This annual competition is held at the world's largest call centre show, in Birmingham, every September. KenCall will attend the show with other industry players from Kenya.

We hope for the best, but regardless of the final result, we are all very proud of what the team of 600+ staff here at KenCall have accomplished over the past 3 years to put us in contention for being one the Top companies in this industry in the world. Quite something...

Thanks for all of your support Best regards form the KenCall Team and please see the proudly displayed logo below.

 

 

2007 Legatum Awards videos
June 10, 2008

Take a look at some of the moments when winning the 2007 Legatum award.