President of iSON Xperiences: This is the right time for outsourcing companies to expand their investments in Egypt

iSON Xperiences, which specializes in customer experience management (XC), plans to increase its expansion in the Egyptian market during the next three years.

The leaders of the company’s executive management said during a press interview with the “ta3heed“, that the company provides its services in the Egyptian market from 4 headquarters, while the company aims to add a new headquarters in the technology park in Maadi during the next few period.

They explained during the meeting that the company has about 3,500 seats in Egypt, and the company aims to add about 2,500 new seats over the next three years, with at least 58% of these seats being to provide services to foreign markets.

The company’s executive management believes that the work environment in the Egyptian market requires an increase in the number of communications services headquarters in the coming period, as well as in technological areas, in line with the current and expected growth in the coming period of the outsourcing industry in Egypt.

The following lines are the text of the interview with: Shailesh Mohan, Executive Vice President of iSON Xperiences, and Amani Rabei, Chief Growth Officer of iSON Xperiences

What advantages does Egypt have for the outsourcing industry in Egypt?

In the past, there were companies that provided outsourcing services that used Egypt as a center for providing subcontracting services, where the company’s branch in Europe, for example, signed a contract with the client to provide its services to this client through its partners in the Egyptian market.

But I believe that this is the appropriate time for companies to expand the outsourcing services provided directly from Egypt. It is the appropriate time to take Egypt as a major destination for this industry globally.

There are also a number of elements that support Egypt’s transformation into a destination for this industry globally, including:

Another feature of the Egyptian market is that about 60% of the country’s human capacity is made up of young people, and this is important for business, as jobs need people and people need jobs.

The Egyptian market is also characterized by the presence of a large segment of educated young people who are graduates of various universities and colleges and who have the ability to learn new skills, and whose number reaches more than 600 thousand graduates annually, and this is a large human capacity that represents an important resource for outsourcing companies, a large part of whose services depend on the human factor. Especially since the world is currently suffering from a crisis in the availability of human competencies.

There is also a strong infrastructure for the communications sector in Egypt, which is a very important advantage and gives the companies providing their services an additional advantage as well.

The average geographic location of Egypt makes it close to the company’s clients in the European market, which does not exceed 5 hours between most European markets, in addition to the competitive advantage in the price of outsourcing services in Egypt while obtaining a service of distinguished quality.

One of the advantages of the Egyptian market is the low rates of employee turnover from the company, which is a reasonable percentage, especially since the human resource is important for companies, especially if he has obtained new experiences and skills, and therefore staying in the company for a longer period is important.

In Egypt, exit rates do not exceed 20% annually, while the global rate ranges between 15 and 18%, and therefore it is a good percentage, unlike some other markets, which reach 50%, such as the Indian market.

Rabie: The number of call center headquarters and technology parks must be increased to keep pace with the growth of the industry

What incentives do companies need in the coming period from the Egyptian government?

In fact, we currently have an integrated and improving work environment in the outsourcing industry. We have strong, high-quality technology areas and infrastructure in these areas, and a competitive price for services.

I believe that the government gives the industry full support, but I see that the industry in Egypt needs new expansion in technology areas and centers providing outsourcing services in line with the current and expected growth of the industry.

Do you have concerns about geopolitical changes in the region and their impact on the industry in general?

In the long term, there are no impacts on the industry as a result of these changes.

But in the near term, there may be some impact, but it is slight, but I see Egypt as a very safe country, and therefore I do not see any justification for Egypt to be affected by the current situation in the region.

Perhaps the Covid pandemic proved this, as at a time when most countries in the world stopped working, Egypt did not stop.

For example, in the Philippines, companies stopped providing outsourcing services, and their employees were unable to provide services from home due to the weak communications infrastructure at home, unlike Egypt, whose employees were able to carry out their work and provide outsourcing services from their homes normally due to the strong infrastructure of the communications sector.

Mohan: Egypt will be a global destination for the outsourcing industry during the next five years

But do these wars represent more pressure on the global economy, so companies resort to more efficient and less expensive solutions to obtain their services?

Indeed, there is a positive side to the current economic pressures, as most companies seek to achieve financial savings while at the same time obtaining service with appropriate efficiency, and therefore companies will resort to searching for service providers that are lower in price and of high quality, which are features that are available in the Egyptian market, and therefore Egypt has a strong opportunity. To take advantage of this situation as an important destination for outsourcing services at a low price and high quality.

I believe that during the next five years, Egypt will be a major station for the global outsourcing industry, and that is why we are present in Egypt.

The company opens a new headquarters in the Technology park in Maadi and aims to add 2,000 new seats within 3 years

What are your plans to expand into new headquarters in the Egyptian market?

Currently, we provide our services from Egypt through 4 places, which are the Technology park in Assiut, and we have headquarters in Al-Korba in Heliopolis, another in Abbasiya, Al-Tijjarayen Tower, and the last in the Al-Tajjayen Tower.

During the coming period, we will announce the opening of a new headquarters in the Technology park in Maadi.

How many seats does the company currently have? What is the target during the coming period?

We currently have approximately 3,500 seats, and we aim to add about 2,500 new seats over the next three years, but we aim for at least 58% of these seats to be to provide outsourcing services to clients outside Egypt.

We believe that the most important expansion is the export of services from Egypt, as we focus on increasing the areas through which we export our services to foreign markets in light of the competitive prices in the Egyptian market compared to other markets.

Now we have been able to penetrate the English market by acquiring a company, and we plan to use our office in Britain to bring in clients from there and European markets to provide services to them from our office in Egypt, as well as from Germany, where we aim to open a sales office there as well, especially since it is one of the promising markets. In terms of the volume of demand for outsourcing services.

In what languages does the company provide its services from Egypt? What languages does the company see in demand in the coming period?

We currently provide our services in Arabic, English, German and Spanish.

We expect that the services provided in English, German, and French will witness a significant increase in the coming period, especially since the quality of providing services in these languages is higher in Egypt than its counterparts on the African continent.