Egypt’s outsourcing industry reached its goal of $1.1 billion in ICT export revenue, according to the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA).

“Egypt enjoys several advantages, given our location,” Ahmed Reda, head of public relations at ITIDA, told Daily News Egypt.

The country’s ICT sector has seen 17 new investments by multinational companies in the past two years along with a number of major deals over the past 12 months, Yasser ElKady, CEO of ITIDA, said in a statement.

“The sector has recorded strong and consistent growth this year with a 12 percent increase in the number of ICT companies in Egypt,” the agency said.

Despite the economic turmoil Egypt is facing due to the political unrest after the January uprising, the number of people employed in the sector has surged nearly 10 percent.

“We are able to serve several time zones, we have a tremendous talent pool full of qualified youth, we offer several packages that include training opportunities and that is why we are seeing this amount of outsourcing,” Reda added.

The ICT sector has surpassed its goal of $1 billion, setting itself up for its next “wave” of growth, this time aiming for $10 billion by 2020.

In February 2011, A.T. Kearney released its annual Global Services Location Index, naming Egypt the fourth most attractive location in the world for offshore services outsourcing. In 2010, Egypt was ranked sixth, up from 13th the previous year.

Despite the unfortunate timing, the firm did not revise its rating of Egypt. The index ranks 50 countries based on financial attractiveness, people skills and availability and business environment. India once again took the top spot.

“IT companies are now hiring, this is one sector not being affected by what is happening in the country,” said Reda.

Earlier this year, Motorola expanded its presence in the region with a new office, as well as a new regional center in Cairo, which is set up to be a focal office for the company’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

HSBC, Sutherland, Orange Business Services, and Stream International have all expanded business in Egypt, with Sutherland increasing its staff this year by 146 percent to about 460 people, according to ITIDA.

Companies like Valeo, the French automotive supplier has also increased the number of newly graduated Egyptian engineers this year, from 278 in December 2010 to 420 in December 2011. The company also expects to increase staff further to 540 in the next two years.

“We will continue to position Egypt as one of the key outsourcing destinations and it is evident we have already seen significant positive results,” said ElKady, referring to ITIDA’s vision for the upcoming year.

“We want to continue to extend all the necessary support to Egyptian and multi-national companies and we are positive that training and supporting the talent pool along with other initiatives will have considerable impact in 2012 and beyond.”

Egypt has the third-largest talent pool in the EMEA region, largely due to the country’s rich pool of young talent who boast an aptitude in various European languages, which gives it a competitive edge. It’s proximity to Europe in time zone also supports the sector’s growth, as is the lower labor cost.

In terms of infrastructure, Smart Village was initially established to serve as a concentration of businesses specializing in information technology, yet due to its strong success it quickly became a headquarters for a variety of multi-national corporations.

Following its example, the new IT Maadi Park, which was scheduled to be ready for operation in 2012, is slated to house approximately 300,000 employees in over 40 buildings.

In its efforts to promote the sector, ITIDA is planning to make Egypt a “leading hub for high end ICT-based innovation, with potential themes like engineering services, product R&D, mobile applications (including gaming), and clinical research.”

It also plans to “catalyze injection of IT into government/private entities” by improving the quality and productivity of services through IT enablement/outsourcing in domestic economy. This entails pursuing cloud computing, healthcare and education.

Egypt’s graduating pool of around 330,000 students is one of the largest among low cost offshoring destinations, according to ITIDA, which should make it’s plans for the sector a feasible target.

Source:http://thedailynewsegypt.com/it-a-telecom/egypts-outsourcing-sector-still-going-strong.html

Yasser El Kady, Chief Executive Officer, ITIDA, says that the agency, which was formed in 2005 to promote Egypt’s growing IT sector, has a renewed focus, and new aspirational targets for growth.

“We are more aggressive, we are focusing on aspirational growth, and I think we are going in the right direction,” he says.

ITIDA has a wide ranging remit to support Egypt’s ICT sector, particularly in the areas of outsourcing and offshoring, and in software development. The agency has brought 80 companies to GITEX this year, including companies in systems integration and hardware assembly, to promote the sector and give the message that Egypt is definitely still ‘on’ for business.

The agency has set aggressive new targets for growth, including developing the outsourcing/offshoring industry in Egypt, which currently provides 60,000 jobs and accounts for $1.3 billion in business, to become a $7 billion business by 2016, and trebling software export over the next three years.

El Kady says that during the unrest earlier in the year, ITIDA proactively worked with the ICT sector, with multinational customers and clients, to reassure and support them. The agency also carried out outreach activities, including visiting major outsourcing clients in the US.

“During the revolution, ITIDA did a great job in communicating with the multinationals, supporting them, helping them. People were very appreciative that a government entity was doing this, and it was the starting point of building a trusting relationship with them,” he says.

The ICT sector in Egypt is now thriving, El Kady says, with a deal with a major multinational outsourcer, that will create 20,000 jobs in the country, due soon, and with several companies looking at acquisitions of Egyptian companies.

ITIDA is also working with 100 companies in the country, focused on verticals and Arabic language software and content.

Source:http://www.itp.net/586583-egypt-plans-for-rapid-it-growth

Before Egypt turned off the Internet, the country had received increasingly high marks from leading analysis firms as a promising offshore outsourcing destination, despite the nation’s political risk.

When it comes to outsourcing, there are some things that analysis firms can no doubt do well. They can assess the labor pool, the educational system, and cost of business — anything that can be measured and quantified. But as Egypt’s political turmoil demonstrates, it’s very difficult to predict the sweep of history.

Management consulting firm A.T. Kearney released an annual index this week that measures the attractiveness of offshoring locations, and it put Egypt fourth on the list after India, China and Malaysia.

In December Gartner included Egypt on its list of top 30 countries for offshore services.

These rankings, according to the analysts who did them, weigh many things (in Gartner’s case 10 separate criteria), including game-ending political risks, and then base rankings on an overall assessment.

Egypt’s rise as an offshore and regional tech venue is relatively new and rapid. It has succeeded in getting a number of U.S. firms, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, to establish offices in a government-backed tech office park that opened in 2003.

But in the wake of the crisis, tech work is being shifted out of country.

With no Internet, Egypt has descended into what might be a modern version of the Middle Ages. What was missed? One person who has studied historical trends for insights about future directions is Ian Morris, a professor of classics and history at Stanford University and author of the recently published, “Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010)”, said that “we shouldn’t be particularly surprised that unrest has broke out in North Africa.”

“The conditions for violence have been there for a long time, and even before Mubarak took power,” Morris said by e-mail. Egypt’s prior leaders, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El Sadat, “constantly had to be maneuvering to keep the lid on a powder keg.”

“But I can also see why analysts might have ranked the danger in Egypt lower than that in, say, large parts of sub-Saharan Africa or central Asia — the Egyptian dictators have been very good at crushing and buying off challengers, and at least since 1973 the army has had a lot of respect in Egypt,” said Morris.

Long-term historical trends “can give us a rough sense of the likelihood of unrest in different places — very unlikely, say, in Demark, very likely in Somalia — but not of the specifics of what will set off violence, when exactly it’ll happen, or why some particular event like Mohamed Bouazizi burning himself in Tunisia will bring the Egyptian government to the verge of collapse, while the Libyan and Syrian rulers have survived, so far, anyway,” Morris said.

At this point, in its still unsettled state, anything seems possible for Egypt. But even if it emerges quickly from its problems it’s unlikely to see a smooth return to its outsourcing effort, according to Prof. Leslie Willcocks, director of The Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics.

Egypt’s “outsourcing initiative was part of a much bigger economic development initiative, and it was all ‘owned’ by an inner group within the government and related agencies,” Willcocks said by e-mail. “Any handover of ownership of these projects is likely to be very disruptive, and will slow the processes in hand.”

“Any new government would be foolish to throw away the advances made,” she said. “But worse things have been done in other countries as a result of political upheaval.”

The emerging markets “are by their nature risky in some regard,” said Ian Marriott, a Gartner analyst, who worked on the top-30 list. He cited riots in Indonesia, Thailand, concerns about gang violence in Mexico and the bombings in India as examples of continuing global volatility.

Marriott said that in terms of Egypt, Gartner did raise in its report the uncertainty of the politics in that country, the upcoming election and mistrust of the young people in it. “We called out to the extent that we could that there is a degree of political instability there,” he said.

But you can’t “get too far into the politics,” Marriott said. “You have to make a balanced business decision.”

Similarly, A.T. Kearney looked at political risk as well as broad spectrum of its business environment.

Gott said political risk is assessed as part of the overall business environment that includes such things as IT security, infrastructure, and level of corruption. But what gave Egypt strong marks are its workforce, with a large output of graduates in engineering and increasing levels of certifications.

Egypt had been moving up in its rankings, said Johan Gott, a manager at consulting firm and author of its Global Services Location Index.

Five years ago, Egypt was an unknown in outsourcing, Gott said. “Egypt was a late comer,” he said. “[But] Egypt exhibits many of the same quantities that India had when India started to grow.”

The Egyptian government estimates its outsourcing market at more than $1 billion, but Frances Karamouzis, an analyst at Gartner, estimates that Egypt’s offshore services, measured as an export, is about $150 million.

Karamouzis said she reviewed three years’ worth of material from key Egyptian entities, included presentations and written material, “and there was never a single slide that had extensive data and positioning regarding geo-political risk, government issues, treasury risk, crime, safety issues, and other items,” she said by e-mail.

“[Egypt] will now have to be in crisis mode to create materials, marketing collateral, substantiated data and factual information in order shift perceptions and reality,” Karamouzis said.

Morris said that long-term patterns are good for predicting general trends and statistical probabilities but not so good for predicting details, such as that Ben Ali, the former president of the Tunisian Republic, would have to flee Tunisia and that Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, might have to resign.

“And, of course, taking the long-term view, it could well turn out that after a few weeks of violence Egypt settles down again and emerges from all this with a stronger government and becomes an even more attractive location for offshoring technology,” Morris said.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9207680/Was_Egypt_oversold_as_top_offshoring_spot_

What happens if the country you outsource to suddenly goes dark?

Early adopters of Egyptian IT and business process services are finding out today. Egypt’s government reportedly blocked all Internet and cell phone service overnight Thursday as anti-government protests continued in the North African nation.

This political unrest and network shutdown come just three months after Egypt’s information technology minister announced that the country wanted to boost its annual outsourcing industry revenues from slightly more than $1 billion to $10 billion by 2020, by investing $15 million to bolster local IT businesses and intellectual property protection.

Egypt’s concerted effort to brand itself as an offshore IT services alternative appeared to be working: Many outsourcing analysts have recently been calling the country of 80 million a credible outsourcing option, particularly for European companies in a similar time zone

he European Outsourcing Association named Egypt its 2010 outsourcing destination of the year. “Egypt is a rising destination and well suited to support multinational corporations for their Africa and even Middle East operations,” said Atul Vashistha, CEO of offshoring consultacy NeoAdvisory. “We see capabilities in both call centers and IT.”

Among the services industry companies with significant operations in Egypt are HSBC which has a global service center to support its Middle East Operations, Alcatel-Lucent which sources technical support for its Africa, Middle East, and South Asia locations, Indian outsourcer Wipro which operates a local IT service center, and IBM which operates a nanotechnology center.

Source:-http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9206958/Egypt_unrest_threatens_status_as_rising_outsourcing_star?taxonomyId=72

Cisco and Xceed recently marked a key milestone in their 18 months of cooperation by unveiling an updated growth plan for their customer support operation in Egypt to provide a better end-to-end customer support and employ an additional 100 full-time agents.

Providing support for contact centers and outsourcing business providers in Egypt today are a key focus for the Egyptian government, which is committed to attracting foreign investment in the field of outsourcing, customer service and support, and Xceed and Cisco are helping to deliver this objective.

Xceed, the global provider of high-quality, multilingual business process outsourcing services, is engaged in managing extensive outsourcing agreements with key government accounts and Fortune Global 500 companies supporting clients on four continents and in nine languages.

Also as part of the plan, a Cisco TelePresence(R) system has been installed at Xceed’s headquarters in the Smart Village – Egypt. The Cisco TelePresence solution, which offers a live, face-to-face experience that enables people from different offices and cities around the world to meet virtually using the power of the network, will connect Xceed employees to Cisco customer support teams around the world.

Highlights / Key Facts: Global information technology and telecommunications companies find that the Egyptian market provides real opportunity and competitive advantages for investment, including low operational costs, political stability and highly qualified human resources. Furthermore, recent international reports have stated that the Egyptian IT and communications field is very promising, as proved by the achievements of the past few years.

The deployment of Cisco’s TelePresence solution at Xceed’s Smart Village Egyptian premises is the first for a Cisco strategic partner in Egypt and demonstrates the strong relationship between the two companies. Telecom Egypt will be the local service provider enabler for the Cisco TelePresence solution at Xceed.

The Cisco TelePresence suite at the Xceed premises will not only help to deliver cost savings, in terms of helping to reduce business travel for employees, it will also make customer support as simple as making a phone call. Participants will be able sit down at the conference table in a Cisco TelePresence room; other participants appear to be sitting across the table, in life size, no matter where they are in the world.

Xceed installed the Cisco TelePresence System 3000, which is ideally suited for large group meetings, creating an environment for up to six people to meet in one location, and to be “virtually” joined by six additional people, for a total of 12 meeting participants. The Cisco TelePresence System 3000 is suitable for customer engagements, presentations to groups, supply-chain dealings, press briefings, operational or engineering reviews, negotiations, regular team meetings, and other gatherings.

Source:http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/11/18/5145762.htm

CAIRO: Last week, Egypt’s information technology minister said the North African country is looking to increase its exports from its burgeoning outsourcing industry to $10 billion by 2020. According to statements last Wednesday, Cairo wants to also increase its focus on IT entrepreneurship and intellectual property rights in the country.Minister Tarek Kamel outlined the new initiatives at an investment conference being held in the Egyptian capital and revealed a glimpse of what is to come in the efforts to see revenue and diversification going forward.

At the same time, Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said his ministry is looking at attracting direct foreign investment of some $15 billion annually in the near future.We need to be able to consolidate. We want to be able to improve management. We want to be able to modernize our base of production,” he told reporters.The government is optimistic on its outsourcing project, which has already seen large multi-national corporations take up residence in Cairo’s Smart Village.he country’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) said that the expect outsourcing to continue to bolster the IT sector and make investment for foreign companies easier.

With reported growth in IT last year at 11.3 percent and a number of major international corporations setting up shop in Egypt, the country remains one of the fastest growing destinations anywhere. In 2009, Sykes Enterprise and Stream Global Services made large investments in the country.The ministry of communications and information technology said that ITIDA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Intel Corporation to “further boost the potential of Egyptian information and communications technology (ICT) companies” via Intel’s technical background and expertise.We aim to improve Egypt’s potential as an outsourcing destination to be able to compete with other locations on what we can offer, develop and have the ability to be the leading destination for these major IT firms,” said a spokesman from the ministry.

The confidence comes on the back Kamel’s statements in late March, where he said Egypt hopes to generate some $2 billion in revenue by 2013. The most recent statements show long-term goals for the country, which is likely to spur on investment, say observers.The idea that Egypt wants to more than quadruple its IT sector in one decade is certainly going to get CEO’s taking notice,” said Amr Ghazlan, an IT consultant with Microsoft in the United States.That is good news for potential investors, who have been moving into the North African nation with an eye on further expansion into Africa and Asia. It is a win-win situation the ministry has told Bikya Masr, with little doubt “that we can continue to make Cairo and Egypt top destinations.

It believes the industry can earn the country some $1.1 billion this year, Kamel said, after meeting employees at a newly opened 1,000-seat call center.Little over a decade ago, Egypt did not even have a ministry of communications and technology. The ministry was established in October 1999 and headed by current Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, who believed this sector could become one of the most lucrative in the country if developed properly.The telecom industry represents an estimated four percent of the country’s GDP; Egypt’s technology exports have reached $250 million annually.
Egypt’s sales pitch is based on its status as one of the Arab world’s largest and fastest growing markets.

Source:-http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=17876

Egypt’s IT spending is expected to increase from US$1.4bn in 2010 to US$2.6bn by 2014. BMI forecasts that Egyptian IT market growth will remain below pre-economic crisis levels in 2010. Growth is expected to bounce back in 2010/2011 as the external and public sectors lift the Egyptian economy, but unemployment and the threat of inflation could act as an inhibitor

on spending.

Over BMI’s five-year forecast period, Egypt will also benefit from youthful demographics and improving information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, despite a number of constraints and a sub-optimal distribution network outside Cairo. The Egyptian market is one of the most resilient in the region, but a steep fall in imports in 2009 provided a warning that the impact of the global slowdown on consumption may not have played out yet.

In 2010, a number of factors should help IT spending growth to recover, including new hardware and software upgrade cycles as well as sales of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system. Economic recovery, tenders delayed from 2009 and higher incomes boosted by pay raises for civil servants and other groups should help to keep IT sales on an upward trajectory.

Source:http://www.live-pr.com/en/new-market-research-report-egypt-information-r1048516548.htm

Egypt was awarded the prestigious title of Offshoring Destination of the Year at the 2010 European Outsourcing Association Awards held in Brussels last night, beating rivals Philippines, Colombia and Sri Lanka to the accolade.

Dr. Hazem Abdelazim, CEO of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) received the award on behalf of Egypt during a glittering ceremony held at the Chateau Du Lac, Brussels.

More than 100 high-level executives and outsourcing professionals attended this inaugural ceremony, hosted by the European Outsourcing Association (EOA).

Commenting on this achievement, H.E. Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology said: “This award recognizes the outstanding progress Egypt has made in the last year as a global outsourcing destination. The country’s credibility is going from strength to strength amongst European companies and has put its mark on the map of favored global services locations. We recognize the increasing role that Egypt can play in the fast-paced global ICT industry and we are advancing steadily on the way to position the country as a hub for IT innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The awards recognize the success of organizations in outsourcing projects and raise awareness of the importance of best practice in outsourcing.

Commenting on Egypt’s success at the awards, Martyn Hart, EOA Chairman said: “Egypt stood out for its multilingual capabilities and developments made to its infrastructure. It has proven itself to be both a strong player for European outsourcers and a gateway to the Middle East and Africa.”

Through the support of ITIDA and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Egypt has shown ongoing improvement in the ICT sector.

The results of these developments have been reflected through numerous reports, with Egypt most recently being ranked sixth most attractive offshoring destination worldwide and number one in EMEA according to the A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index™.

The growing list of multinationals investing and expanding operations in Egypt, including Stream Global Services, Vodafone, EMC, Teleperformance, IBM, Microsoft, SQS, Oracle and Valeo, is further testament to the country’s unwavering efforts to establish itself as the outsourcing destination of choice across Europe and beyond.

Source:http://www.prurgent.com/2010-06-30/pressrelease104398.htm

Dr. Tarek Kamel Egypt Communication and IT Minister started a visit to the United States at the head of a large trade mission comprising representatives of 12 firms operating in the IT field.

The visit aims at opening new cooperation areas between the two Countries.

Moreover, Minister of Communications and Technology Tarek Kamel witnessed on Tuesday 22/06/2010 the signing of three agreements with major IT firms in the US.

The deals were signed between Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Invensys PLC, Stream Global Services and Sutherland Global Services.

The agreements will help create thousands of job opportunities in IT outsourcing.

Kamel arrived in the U.S. on Monday 21/06/2010 on a few days’ visit, during which he will partake in the US-Egyptian businessmen forum, organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Furthermore, he is also expected to hold talks with US officials and representatives from companies on means of promoting cooperation between the two sides in communications and information technology.

Source:http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201006236333/Technology/egypt-us-sign-three-agreements-in-it-outsourcing.html

Egypt has what it takes to fiercely compete in the outsourcing industry and IT service provision, said Egyptian Communications and IT Minister Tarek Kamel.

Egyptian companies have gained considerable expertise in the field, enabling them to proceed with developing several sectors, including the health and transport ones, Kamel said.

This came during the opening of an extensive IT conference organized by Cisco Systems, the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association (EJB) and the Egyptian Information Telecommunications and Software Alliance (EITESAL) under the title “Egypt as a Destination for Egypt.”

Transport Minister Alaa Fahmi, addressing the conference, stressed the important role that IT companies and contact centres working in outsourcing can play in the coming phase in developing vital sectors in Egypt, such as transport.

The purpose of the conference is to educate, share best business practices and network amongst the key players serving the industry in the transport and health sectors.

Source:http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201006146213/Technology/egypt-to-compete-in-outsourcing-industry-a-it-service.html

Egypt has become one of the world’s fastest growing locations for global outsourcing and services and has seen huge investments from several multinational groups during the past one year, said a senior official.

Hossam Megahed, board member for Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), said companies such as EMC, Stream Global Services and Sykes Enterprise have been collaborating with the agency and outsourcing their business in the country.

Reiterating the value and strategic importance of outsourcing, Megahed said despite the economic challenges, Egypt’s economy grew by 5.8 per cent in the first quarter, accelerated by the 11.3 per cent growth of its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.

According to Megahed, Egypt’s impressive infrastructure, favorable business environment, and world-class multilingual workforce were among the key factors that attracted companies to invest in the country.

‘The presence of high-profile companies like IBM, Microsoft and Vodafone in Egypt today highlights ITIDA’s continued success at building the country’s reputation as a global service delivery location,’ he remarked.

ITIDA recently showcased Egypt’s global outsourcing capabilities and offerings at the ‘4th Annual Shared Services Exchange,’ the invitation-only event designed for executives focused on strategy and partnerships in delivering value from shared services opportunities, held in Texas, US.

Megahed headed a host of panel discussions at the Shared Services Exchange, with leading representatives and executives from across the world.

He also discussed the emerging importance of Egypt in the global outsourcing market, as well as the importance of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry to Egypt’s economic development at the event.

Megahed also participated in two discussions: ‘The Great Debate: Determining whether or not outsourcing is the best strategy for your organization’ and ‘Moving Beyond BRIC: Driving strategy out of dialogue on trends and challenges.

Source:http://www.tradearabia.com/news/newsdetails.asp?Sn=IT&artid=181187

ITIDA, Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency, is showcasing Egypt’s global outsourcing capabilities and offerings at the 4th Annual Shared Service Exchange from June 6-8 in Austin, Texas.

The invitation-only event is designed for executives focused on strategy and partnerships in delivering value from shared services opportunities.

Egypt is one of the world’s fastest growing locations for global outsourcing and services, and has seen huge investments in the last year with companies such as EMC, Stream Global Services and Sykes Enterprise collaborating with ITIDA and outsourcing their business in Egypt.

Mr. Hossam Megahed, Board Member for ITIDA, will be leading a host of panel discussions at the Shared Services Exchange, with leading representatives and executives from across the world. Mr. Megahed will be discussing the emerging importance of Egypt in the global outsourcing market, as well as the importance of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry to Egypt’s economic development.

“The presence of high-profile companies like IBM, Microsoft and Vodafone in Egypt today highlights ITIDA’s continued success at building the country’s reputation as a global service delivery location,” said Mr. Megahed. “Egypt’s impressive infrastructure, favorable business environment, and world-class multilingual workforce are among the many factors that attract companies to invest in Egypt.”

Mr. Megahed will be participating in two discussions:
• The Great Debate: Determining whether or not outsourcing is the best strategy for your organization (Monday, June 7th at 1:30 pm CDT)
• Moving Beyond BRIC: Driving strategy out of dialogue on trends and challenges (Monday, June 7th at 6:15 pm CDT)

Mr. Megahed adds, “I aim to further establish Egypt’s reputation this week by meeting with prominent multinational companies that understand the value and strategic importance of outsourcing, and seek a strategic base to operate from. Egypt has so much to offer across geographic markets and a global client base, and is well suited and structured to support both existing and future clients. Together with our clients, ITIDA is the guiding force for IT innovation, investment and development across Egypt.”

Momentum for Egypt

Despite the global economic challenges that are being faced worldwide, Egypt’s economy grew by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010, accelerated by the 11.3 percent growth of its ICT industry. With support from the Egyptian government, ITIDA has been highly aggressive over the past five years to develop the capabilities of local IT companies, attract foreign direct investments and scale up the talent pool through joint initiatives with Egyptian universities. Additional highlights include:

• In the 2009 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, Egypt ranked sixth in the world, improving seven positions over the 2007 report
• Egypt’s 2009 college graduating pool of 330,000 students is one of the largest among low-cost offshoring destinations
• Egypt built the Smart Village, a modern business park outside Cairo that spreads over 32 million square feet. Currently home to 36 companies and 22,000 professionals, it is expected to host more than 500 companies and more than 100,000 employees by 2014
• In addition to Smart Village, Maadi Park will be the BPO/ITO delivery park located in the center of Cairo. Currently under construction, the Park will be encompass 2 million square feet of prime real estate in downtown Cairo and have the capacity for 30,000 employees in over 40 buildings

Source:http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=46600&t=1&c=33&cg=4&mset=

ITIDA, Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency, will be showcasing Egypt’s global outsourcing capabilities and offerings at the 4th Annual Shared Services Exchange from June 6-8, 2010 in Austin, Texas. The invitation-only event is designed for executives focused on strategy and partnerships in delivering value from shared services opportunities.

Egypt is one of the world’s fastest growing locations for global outsourcing and services, and has seen huge investments in the last year with companies such as EMC, Stream Global Services and Sykes Enterprise collaborating with ITIDA and outsourcing their business in Egypt.

Mr. Hossam Megahed, Board Member for ITIDA, will be leading a host of panel discussions at the Shared Services Exchange, with leading representatives and executives from across the world. Mr. Megahed will be discussing the emerging importance of Egypt in the global outsourcing market, as well as the importance of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry to Egypt’s economic development.

“The presence of high-profile companies like IBM, Microsoft and Vodafone in Egypt today highlights ITIDA’s continued success at building the country’s reputation as a global service delivery location,” said Mr. Megahed. “Egypt’s impressive infrastructure, favorable business environment, and world-class multilingual workforce are among the many factors that attract companies to invest in Egypt.”

Mr. Megahed will be participating in two discussions:

The Great Debate: Determining whether or not outsourcing is the best strategy for your organization (Monday, June 7th at 1:30 pm CDT)

Moving Beyond BRIC: Driving strategy out of dialogue on trends and challenges (Monday, June 7th at 6:15 pm CDT)

Mr. Megahed adds, “I aim to further establish Egypt’s reputation this week by meeting with prominent multinational companies that understand the value and strategic importance of outsourcing, and seek a strategic base to operate from. Egypt has so much to offer across geographic markets and a global client base, and is well suited and structured to support both existing and future clients. Together with our clients, ITIDA is the guiding force for IT innovation, investment and development across Egypt.”

ITIDA is a Gold sponsor of the event.

Momentum for Egypt

Despite the global economic challenges that are being faced worldwide, Egypt’s economy grew by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010, accelerated by the 11.3 percent growth of its ICT industry. With support from the Egyptian government, ITIDA has been highly aggressive over the past five years to develop the capabilities of local IT companies, attract foreign direct investments and scale up the talent pool through joint initiatives with Egyptian universities. Additional highlights include:

In the 2009 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index, Egypt ranked sixth in the world, improving seven positions over the 2007 report

Egypt’s 2009 college graduating pool of 330,000 students is one of the largest among low-cost offshoring destinations
Egypt built the Smart Village, a modern business park outside Cairo that spreads over 32 million square feet. Currently home to 36 companies and 22,000 professionals, it is expected to host more than 500 companies and more than 100,000 employees by 2014

In addition to Smart Village, Maadi Park will be the BPO/ITO delivery park located in the center of Cairo. Currently under construction, the Park will be encompass 2 million square feet of prime real estate in downtown Cairo and have the capacity for 30,000 employees in over 40 buildings

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/egypt-strengthens-reputation-as-a-leading-outsourcing-destination-95725459.html

Egypt’s information and technology sector continues to show it can be a major player on the global stage, boosting its investment in the area noticeably in the past decade. The country’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) said that the expect outsourcing to continue to bolster the IT sector and make investment for foreign companies easier.

With reported growth in IT last year at 11.3 percent and a number of major international corporations setting up shop in Egypt, the country remains one of the fastest growing destinations anywhere. In 2009, Sykes Enterprise and Stream Global Services made large investments in the country.

The ministry of communications and information technology said that ITIDA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Intel Corporation to “further boost the potential of Egyptian information and communications technology (ICT) companies” via Intel’s technical background and expertise.

“We aim to improve Egypt’s potential as an outsourcing destination to be able to compete with other locations on what we can offer, develop and have the ability to be the leading destination for these major IT firms,” said a spokesman from the ministry.

The confidence comes on the back of Communications Minister Tarek Kamel’s statements in late March, where he said Egypt hopes to generate some $2 billion in revenue by 2013 and $10 billion in 10 years.

That is good news for potential investors, who have been moving into the North African nation with an eye on further expansion into Africa and Asia. It is a win-win situation the ministry says, with little doubt “that we can continue to make Cairo and Egypt top destinations.”

It believes the industry can earn the country some $1.1 billion this year, Kamel said, after meeting employees at a newly opened 1,000-seat call center.

Little over a decade ago, Egypt did not even have a ministry of communications and technology. The ministry was established in October 1999 and headed by current Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, who believed this sector could become one of the most lucrative in the country if developed properly.

The telecom industry represents an estimated four percent of the country’s GDP; Egypt’s technology exports have reached $250 million annually.

Egypt’s sales pitch is based on its status as one of the Arab world’s largest and fastest growing markets.

Source:http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=12741

Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the executive IT arm of the country’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is delighted to announce details of its upcoming ‘Business Without Barriers’ conferences to be held later this month in Riyadh and Dubai.

Held in conjunction with International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm for the information technology and telecommunications markets, the conferences aim to support the growth and development of Egypt’s IT Industry through the facilitation of mutually beneficial relationships between Egyptian and Gulf-based IT companies.

Egypt is among the world’s fastest-growing locations for global outsourcing and offshoring, and the country offers a world-class, cost-effective alternative to organizations looking to adopt the outsourcing model. Together with IDC, ITIDA has been working on a research-led go-to-market program called ‘Go-to-GCC’ that is aimed at partnering Egyptian IT organizations with leading systems integrators and channel partners from the Gulf region.

“ITIDA is very pleased to have IDC as a partner in this important project,” says Dr. Hazem Y. Abdelazim, CEO of ITIDA. “We are anticipating great success for the events because of all the efforts exerted over the past six months. Communicating our partnership message in the Gulf is key to creating new business opportunities for Egyptian IT companies and their counterparts in the GCC region. Our companies are looking forward to attending the two events and are sure of a positive outcome that will further solidify our business relations with our partners in the Gulf.”

Most forums for business networking tend to have a very low success rate as insufficient time is spent on researching and identifying viable business opportunities. However, the ‘Business Without Barriers’ conferences mark the culmination of six months of intense research by IDC’s most senior consultants and analysts as they have sought firstly to identify skills, products, and solutions within select Egyptian IT companies that are in demand in the Gulf region, and then match them with relevant systems integrators and channel partners from the GCC nations.

These two highly structured and targeted go-to-market gatherings will host an ICT trade delegation from Egypt in order to aid the development of invaluable long-term business partnerships between Egyptian and Gulf-based companies. As well as facilitating unrivalled intelligent networking opportunities at the event itself, IDC will also act as a facilitator in the six-month period following the conferences, providing support for both Egyptian and Gulf-based organizations as they seek to develop and sustain viable business partnerships.

The Dubai event will take place at the Madinat Jumeirah on Monday, May 24, while the Riyadh event will take place at the city’s Four Seasons Hotel on Wednesday, May 26.

Source:http://www.ameinfo.com/232705.html

There is no question that Egypt has proven its mettle as a location of choice for offshore contact center outsourcers, most recently Stream Global Services. Its labor pool scalability, language skills, and government support for the sector have been crucial to this development. However, it is important to continue promoting Egypt as a delivery center for North America. To date, Egypt has mainly focused on Western Europe.

Stream Global Services’ decision to move into Egypt for contact center delivery highlights the significant value that this market has to offer. We have touted the potential benefits of Egypt in a delivery strategy for some time, and believe the country’s fundamentals still serve it well. With a population in excess of 80 million (including a large number of university graduates), Egypt’s labor pool cannot be ignored in an era in which quality offshore labor is hard to find. Complementing this are the excellent language skills that can be found in Egypt, most notably in Cairo. These advantages have enabled a large number of firms to house pan-European delivery sites in this geography, with agents handling volumes of calls in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German.

Government support has also been an important part of the development of the CRM outsourcing sector in Egypt. It has come in the form of long-term incentives for suppliers, such as tax breaks, training programs, and the development of wired-up business parks. The results are palpable in terms of Egypt’s list of global contact center outsourcing tenants, which, in addition to Stream, include Teleperformance, Sykes, and large local players such as Xceed.

Promote Spanish and stability to leverage North American business

Despite our view that the fundamental base exists in Egypt to promote itself as a leading offshore destination, there remains much to be done to lure more contracts that service North American end users, which constitute the majority of offshore business and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future. Most Egyptian offshore contracts service end users in Western Europe and, while this remains a lucrative market, it will be important to promote more US and Canadian investment to ensure revenue diversification as a risk-mitigation strategy. However, to accomplish this, Egypt’s government and private sector must work together to achieve two important goals.

The first goal is to overcome negative perceptions in North America about Egypt’s stability, which are due to its geographical location. While it remains one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, there are concerns about terrorism and the safety of Western business people. However, our most recent survey of preferred offshore locations among contact center managers showed a noted improvement in Egypt’s positioning.

For the second goal, Egypt’s contact center sector needs to promote its ability to deliver services in North American Spanish. The US Hispanic market is gaining importance in terms of both size and purchasing power, and if CRM outsourcing vendors are to be lured into Egypt there must be confidence that both North American English and Spanish can be handled at an advanced level. Here the government has a major role to play in terms of enhancing the foreign language educational footprint and infrastructure.
Should these two areas be engaged in a coordinated manner, Egypt has a substantial opportunity to enhance its position as a location of choice and eat into the lead its competition enjoys.

Source:http://www.ovum.com/news/euronews.asp?id=8522

Stream Global Services, Inc., a premium business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider specializing in customer relationship management for Fortune 1000 companies, announced its continued global expansion with the inaugural opening of its new service center in Cairo, Egypt.
Stream’s Chairman and CEO, Scott Murray, welcomed His Excellency Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, as well as local business leaders, Stream clients and the media at the launch of the center in 6th of October City.

Commenting on the new center, ITIDA’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Hazem Abdelazim said:

“The growth of Stream in Egypt over the last 12 months has been phenomenal and the launch of their dedicated service center marks their success and the attractiveness of Egypt as a destination for BPO. We’re delighted that Stream has chosen Cairo for this new center and its commitment to training and employing Egyptian employees is testament to the quality of skilled workers we have here in the country.”

This inauguration follows an agreement signed in Washington DC in June 2009 with the Egyptian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) and Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) to employ and train more than 1,000 Egyptian employees in its Cairo facility over the next three years. In less than a year, Stream has trained and employed 800 Egyptian employees and expects to hit the 1,000 target by June 2010.

The new 800 plus seat center will support the growing demand for Stream’s global BPO services. As a recognized top outsourcing destination, businesses are attracted to Egypt because of its central location and its economic and political stability.

Egypt’s exceptional technical workforce, as well as its strong telecommunications infrastructure and central service location, make it a world-class destination to support Stream’s global clients. The government’s dedication to educational programs and Cairo’s approximately 300,000 annual college graduates contributed to Stream’s selection of the city for its newest center. In addition, Egypt’s central location provides easy access for clients in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Stream’s Chairman and CEO, Scott Murray added, “Our Cairo service center has proven to be a great addition to our established footprint in EMEA and our new facility further underlines the success that Stream has achieved in this growing geographic market for our global client base. Our new Cairo service center is well suited to support our existing and future client base, with its highly technical support professionals and extensive language support.”

As one of the first global service centers in Egypt focusing primarily on offshore contact center outsourcing for North America and Europe, Stream offers its services in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Arabic languages. The expansion into Egypt marks another milestone of providing Stream clients a diverse global strategy for locating their service requirements across multiple destinations with one global provider.

Source:http://www.ameinfo.com/227639.html#story

Egypt hopes its burgeoning foreign outsourcing industry will generate $2 billion in revenue by 2013 and $10 billion in 10 years, aided by targeted incentives for incoming firms, the communications minister said on Tuesday.

It expects the industry to earn the country $1.1 billion this year, Tarek Kamel said, after meeting employees at a new 1,000-seat call centre on Tuesday.

“We are working, in ITIDA (Information Technology Industry Development Agency) and the ministry, on an incentive package. We are expanding in technology parks for the offshoring industry,” Kamel said at the centre’s official opening.

Eight hundred of those seats are filled, providing technical and sales support to six clients of Stream Global Services (SGS.A), including satellite radio station Syrius-XM.

Stream’s chairman and chief executive, Scott Murray, told Reuters the firm intends to expand further in Egypt and Brazil and to enter China, where it will employ 2,000 people.

“We are starting to look at new sites tomorrow,” Murray said. “This centre here is pretty much sold out, so we will need another centre sometime this summer and probably another one by late in the year or early in 2011.”

Boston-based Stream has 30,000 employees in 22 countries. It started in Egypt last year with 50 employees in temporary faciities and expects up to 5,000 employees in Cairo and other Egyptian cities in the next two to three years.

INCENTIVES

Egypt’s outsourcing industry pales in comparison with that of India and the Philippines, but is one of the country’s fastest growing sectors, aided by a pool of university graduates fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian as well as Arabic and English.

The incentives offered increase significantly once a company commits to employing more than 3,000 Egyptian employees. They now target firms providing back office financial and accounting services, ITIDA board member Amin Khaireldin told Reuters.

“We do the incentives to share risk with those who are coming,” he said. “As we speak now we are encouraging people to come for financial and accounting because we graduate every year 60,000 accountants from our universities.”

Khaireldin said ITIDA subsidies cover up to 90 percent of vocational training costs. ITIDA also matches the difference between Egypt’s telecommunications costs and the lowest such costs elsewhere in the world and even helps pay rent and transportation costs.

Stream’s largest client in Egypt is satellite radio station Syrius-XM, which chose Egypt to diversify away from its significant presence in the Philippines and elsewhere.

“From a performance standpoint it is very comparable,” said Joe McGuinnis, senior director of call centre operations at Syrius-XM, adding that costs were comparable.

“We chose Cairo … as an alternative to the Philippines, the same offshore value but in a different location,” he said.

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE62L2AU20100323

The inauguration was witnessed by Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology and a group of government officials. Also present at the event were an IBM delegation, headed by Peter Lynt, General Manager, Global Business Process Delivery, Amr Ghoneim, General Manager IBM Egypt, and. David Brooks, BPD Center Leader.

This is the first time IBM has operated in Smart Village Cairo. The new BPDC, a critical component of IBM’s network of global services delivery centers, will focus specifically on delivering outsourced business process services for IBM’s finance and accounting clients.

“IBM corporation is perceived as the technological partner of the Egyptian government,” said Dr Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. “This partnership was reinforced by the visit of IBM’s Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano in September 2008 where he met with President Mubarak. During his visit, Palmisno witnesses partnership initiatives by the Egyptian Government and IBM. Today IBM isn’t being looked at as a software, information systems, and services provider but as a partner that is investing in the implementation of the Ministry’s strategy in the field of outsourcing industry and investing in R&D.”

Skilled Egyptian workers are currently being trained and hired to deliver services that range from business process outsourcing through back-office and transaction processing operations, to technical support and call center operations.

“IBM is pleased to open its new center located in Smart Village Cairo,” said Amr Ghoneim, General Manager, IBM Egypt. “Egypt is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and one of the most attractive growth markets for business. IBM’s decision to locate a Business Process Services Delivery Center here recognizes the importance of Egypt to our services delivery network as well as other factors like cultural compatibility and the availability of highly-educated professionals.”

The agreement to establish the BPD Center is the outcome of a joint collaboration between IBM and The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the executive IT arm of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The center agreement was signed in March 2009 in the presence of many government officials, headed by Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, ITIDA officials and representatives of IBM Corporation. The Center supports the Egyptian government’s plans to focus on job creation through multiple projects.

Source:http://www.ameinfo.com/221252.html

Egyptian companies are ready to best

In a conversation with A. Soliman – R&D director in http://spectramindtech.com – he clarify that all Egyptian software development outsourcing companies are ready to be the best, and this required more concentration in the next three years.

Egypt is already has worldwide classification as sixth country provides outsourcing services, and is famous of call centers outsourcing, and when we asked Soliman about the applied sciences experiences in Egypt, he answered “Egyptian youth are very connected to modern applied sciences, http://spectramindtech.com as an example, has large experience in theoretical and applied sciences, and we use it in R&D department to problem solving and optimization of integrated solutions in the field of software development”.

Moreover, Soliman thought that Egyptian companies are in the right way to become the future of software development outsourcing, and uncovered that http://spectramindtech.com directors are studying the idea of constructing Egyptian Software Outsourcing Association to provide more facilities to Egyptian outsourcing companies.

Source : http://www.sbwire.com/news/view/34903