Outsourcing Companies Activate Emergency Plans, Pass Ramses Fire Test in Egypt
In a true test of digital infrastructure resilience, Egypt’s outsourcing services sector demonstrated remarkable flexibility following a sudden fire at the Ramses Central building – one of the most crucial connectivity and communication hubs – last week.
While internet and landline communication services experienced partial disruptions in several areas, major outsourcing companies swiftly activated their emergency plans, shifting thousands of employees to remote work.
This significantly mitigated the crisis’s impact on daily operations and global client service.
Companies’ responses highlighted their quick transition to flexible work systems and reliance on alternative operational centers, coupled with immediate reassurance messages to international clients.
This underscores the Egyptian market’s commitment to providing reliable and stable services even in emergencies.
Telecom Egypt to Compensate Outsourcing Clients
Ramy Kato, Executive Vice President for Customer Service at Telecom Egypt, confirmed that the company would compensate its outsourcing service provider clients in the local market who have connectivity lines on its network.
Kato added that the compensation would vary from company to company based on the terms of their signed contracts.
Sutherland Still Assessing Impact
Ahmed Rayhan, Senior Manager at Sutherland Global Services for the Middle East and North Africa, stated that the company is still assessing the repercussions of the Ramses Central fire on services provided to clients and has not yet reached any conclusions.
Foundever Reassures Foreign Clients, Shifts to Remote Work
Mina Wahba, Director of Foundever Outsourcing Services, explained that the company’s office in City Stars Mall, Nasr City, was negatively affected by the Ramses Central fire.
Consequently, Foundever decided to shift employees to work from home until communication services return to normal.
Wahba noted that Foundever has two locations for providing cross-border outsourcing services to its clients in Cairo: one in City Stars Mall and the other in the Maadi Technology Park.
The Maadi site is highly secured and digitally equipped against any crises or disasters and experienced no service interruption.
He also denied any impact on the company’s call centers in other governorates.
He added that his company has begun reassuring its foreign clients, confirming that the Ramses Central fire is merely a temporary crisis that the government quickly contained.
However, Foundever still does not know the exact date for the full restoration of service.
Saeed Riyad, Deputy Head of the Outsourcing Services Division at the Eitesal Association for Information Technology, remarked that the most significant impact of the Ramses Central fire on the industry was on work-from-home teams, who became completely isolated from their companies due to communication outages, in his words.
US Company Head Expresses Concerns Over Incident’s Impact
Meanwhile, the head of an American outsourcing company in Egypt expressed strong concerns that this incident might cast a shadow on Egypt’s international reputation on the global outsourcing services map.
He emphasized that some outsourcing service providers are unable to act and manage the situation, especially since they are unaware of a specific date for the end of this crisis.
It is worth noting that Ramses Central was inaugurated in 1927 by King Fuad I. It contains the largest interconnection rooms among telecommunications companies and is used by operators like Vodafone and Orange for directing calls and connecting local and international internet traffic.
It also handles 40% of Egypt’s domestic and international communication traffic via landlines and fiber optic cables.
This incident highlights both the vulnerabilities and the resilience of Egypt’s digital infrastructure and outsourcing sector.
While the rapid response of companies is commendable, concerns about long-term reputation and the impact on remote workers remain.
