By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA HAS received the thumbs up as a favourable information, communication and technology (ICT) destination, from scores of local and foreign operators of Call Centres.
Several of the companies are crediting Jamaica's easy accessibility to the United States, low staff turnover in the ICT sector and quality ICT infrastructure, for their decision to expand their operations within the next six months. One of the entities lauding the island's favourable ICT climate is the E-services group, which has operated a contact centre in Montego Bay for the last four years, and last year earned more than US$20m. E-services has announced that it will kick-off a multi-million dollar expansion of its operations in Naggo Head, St. Catherine, within two months. E-services started with 30 employees in 2000, but now has a staff complement of 1,300 and that figure is set to rise sharply, when the company opens its 50,000 square foot facility in Naggo Head.
DOZENS OF JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Ravi Kapahi, director of operations with e-services group, indicates that the company will create dozens of job opportunities for Jamaicans this year, as it plans to double the number of jobs at the Naggo Head location between April and December this year.
"We will be moving into the Naggo Head building in late April, at which time we will have 200 employees. It's going to be an inbound customer care service for pharmaceutical companies and by the end of the year 2004, we expect to have 400 employees there," outlined Mr. Kapahi in an interview with The Gleaner.
Services offered by the company include: insurance/claim processing, webmaster services, e-mail and multi-channel customer service and technical support.
Meanwhile, the directors of the company are citing Jamaica's highly trained workforce as a driving factor behind the expansion mode now being enjoyed by the company. "There is fantastic labour in this country, the people are very well positioned to do customer service-like work," opined the director of operations at e-services group.
A similar picture is being played out with regards to another ICT company, Vista Print. The Massachusetts-based company from the United States has been offering e-mail services and e-mail-support services from Montego Bay, since July. The company has now surpassed its original expectations, and according to Janet Holian, Vista Print's executive vice-president of sales and marketing, it will be using Jamaica as its base to launch a new ICT option. "We opened our call centre in July with the original intent of doing e-mail only... but we were so pleased with the quality of the workforce, that we anticipate moving our contact centre to Jamaica (from the U.S.), before the end of the year," Ms Holian disclosed.
CORE STAFF HAS JUMPED
She points to the fact that already Vista Print's core staff in the island has jumped from 25 in July, to the current level of 65, and is expected to soar to 90 before the end of February, in keeping with the growth in the e-mail services, it provides.
Verizon International Teleser-vices, which is based in the Dominican Republic, is evaluating the logistics of the telecommunications sector in Jamaica, with a view to spreading its wings when the time is ripe.
Rosanna Urena, director of marketing and sales with Verizon, explains that Jamaica is the largest English-speaking location in the Caribbean and business in the island would be a valuable asset to her company.
