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