Development of a business process outsourcing industry in Kenya: critical success factors; policy brief (original) (raw)
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Offshore Business Process Outsourcing for Developing Countries: A South African Perspective
The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries
Offshoring of IT-enabled services to developing countries will continue to dominate the offshoring sector. Companies are constantly on the lookout for locations where they can provide services at a low cost. This has made developing countries to take advantage of this opportunity to create value propositions for companies in developed countries leading to economic development. This paper describes the South Africa's BPO industry in order to explore the current opportunities and potential challenges the industry offers. The role of government support, quality infrastructure, prevalence of HIV/AIDS and inflexibility in labor laws are found to feature significantly within the South African context. The paper contributes to literature on outsourcing in developing countries which has elaborated how African Countries can serve as attractive location for offshoring BPO. This study concludes by providing implications for policy and practice.
The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2020
The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of the political environment on the performance of the Business Process Outsourcing Sector in Kenya. The study covered all the 118 registered business process outsourcing companies in Kenya. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study. The descriptive results indicate that the political climate in Kenya has not been conducive to the business process outsourcing sector. The inferential results indicated that the political environment had a statistically significant influence on the performance of the business process outsourcing sector in Kenya. The study, therefore, concludes that a conducive political environment is vital for the business process outsourcing sector to thrive. The study suggests that the government ought to consider developing and implementing measures and policies that will ensure a conducive political environment to enable BPO companies to thrive.
National culture and organizational capabilities of IT offshoring services in Kenya
African Journal of Business Management, 2013
The pervasive adoption of outsourced information technology (IT) services has made the multi-billion dollar information technology outsourcing industry become important to individual organizations and governments as well. IT offshoring elevates the importance of country destination where services are outsourced to with increasing attention shifting to offshore destinations in Africa. African countries are emerging as offshore destinations because they are regarded as low cost regions, while the traditional ‘captive’ destinations such as India and China are becoming middle income and thus with increasing cost levels. To examine the influence of organization capability and national cultures in offshoring success, a case study was used and theoretical thematic analysis employed. From the analysis, this study recommends a framework dubbed the renewal, credibility and sensitivity (RCS) framework. The critical dimensions revolve around the need for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms to enhance their capabilities through organizational renewal; countries to enhance their competitiveness through development of their national credibility; while global stakeholders should recognize that there is a need for development of intercultural competence, not only from vendor perspectives, but also from client organizations. The framework recognizes that the key drivers that underlie the development of offshoring success include the need to build organizational capability, positive convergence of country factor conditions and enhancing intercultural competence
Journal of International Business Policy
We explore the evolution of Africa’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. In so doing, we seek to derive policy and managerial implications on how African suppliers can grow and become more attractive to foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). We discuss insights from the literature on (BPO) clusters and how these evolve. Our conceptual arguments are supported by a case study of the evolution of the Kenyan BPO cluster through three broad stages: embryonic, early, and developmental. We argue that this evolution has been hampered by factors including the small and sometimes informal nature of local suppliers, the reluctance of foreign multinationals to make long-term commitments, and the intermittent devotion by the Kenyan government to supporting BPO clusters. Accordingly, we suggest direct and indirect policy initiatives to grow the industry toward a more mature stage, increase knowledge spillovers and formalization levels, and improve working conditions.
The pervasive adoption of outsourced information technology (IT) services has made the multi-billion dollar information technology outsourcing industry become important to individual organizations and governments as well. IT offshoring elevates the importance of country destination where services are outsourced to with increasing attention shifting to offshore destinations in Africa. African countries are emerging as offshore destinations because they are regarded as low cost regions, while the traditional 'captive' destinations such as India and China are becoming middle income and thus with increasing cost levels. To examine the influence of organization capability and national cultures in offshoring success, a case study was used and theoretical thematic analysis employed. From the analysis, this study recommends a framework dubbed the renewal, credibility and sensitivity (RCS) framework. The critical dimensions revolve around the need for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms to enhance their capabilities through organizational renewal; countries to enhance their competitiveness through development of their national credibility; while global stakeholders should recognize that there is a need for development of intercultural competence, not only from vendor perspectives, but also from client organizations. The framework recognizes that the key drivers that underlie the development of offshoring success include the need to build organizational capability, positive convergence of country factor conditions and enhancing intercultural competence.
Business process outsourcing strategy and competitive advantage in commercial banks in Kenya
2011
This project is dedicated to my wife Lucy Kabura, my mother Mary Nyambura for the prayers and encouragement, also my children Caroline, Cindy and Christine for being an inspiration to me. May the Lord, God Almighty bless you abundantly. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This management research proposal could not have been successful without the invaluable contributions and support of people who I owe gratitude. I would therefore like to thank the following people for their contribution. I benefited a lot from the uneqivocal support, guidance and wisdom of my supervisor Dr. Martin Ogutu who was of invaluable help during the entire preparation and completion of the project. I would further wish to extend my gratitude to all my lecturers on the MBA programme, the support fellow students, staff of University of Nairobi, senior executives of commercial banks in Kenya and my colleagues Joseph Torku, Susan Gicheru, Daisy Wanjie and Moses Kemei. Finally I thank my family for their support and encouragement during the entire period of the program.
Critical Success Factors in Business Process Outsourcing of Logistics Companies in Kenya
This study was carried out to determine the critical success factors of business process outsourcing in the nascent Logistics Kenya context. A census of all the logistics companies operating in Nairobi was carried out. Data was collected through a questionnaire and factor analysis was conducted to establish the main factors. It was established that there are five critical success factors: investment of international companies in the local economy; internet connectivity; top management support; creation/expansion of a potential niche and necessary expertise. This exploration study will go a long way to help practitioners focus investment in these identified priority areas.
The aim of this study was to establish the influence of a firms' capability on delivery of quality outsourced ICT services in Kenyan Public Institutions. This research focused on a case study of a typical public institution with branches in three towns herein coded as town1, town 2 and town 3. It was conducted between the month of May and September 2017. The specific objectives were to examine how the independent variables namely; IT capability, organizational capability and vendor management capability all have on delivery of quality outsourced ICT services in the selected institution. It further looked at the effect of intervening variables such as information sharing, communication quality and collaborative participation and their relationship with both the independent variables and the dependent variable. Study design: This study employed a mixed research design constituting both qualitative and quantitative type of research. Methodology: A mixed method constituting both qualitative and quantitative research design was used constituting both probability and non-probability sampling methods. The researcher used purposive sampling followed by stratified simple random sampling to select respondents for the study. A sample size of 95 respondents comprising of 22 ICT assistants, 15 ICT officers, 12 senior ICT officers, 9 ICT section leads, 2 ICT trainers, 2 ICT managers, 1 ICT director and 32 members from the management team were selected in line with Yamane's (1967) formula. Questionnaires and interviews were used as data collection instruments. Research findings: The research findings revealed that independent variables namely; IT capability, organization capability and vendor management capability contribute to delivery of quality outsourced ICT services. Each of these factors had a positive and significant influence on the dependent variable. The research further revealed that the intervening variables (information sharing, communication quality and collaborative participation) have an influence which is either significant or insignificant on the relationships between independent variables and dependent variable. The findings may be useful to both public and private institutions within the country and beyond in embracing outsourcing of services.
Dlsu Business Economics Review, 2012
Information and communication technology outsourcing is a major part of outsourcing decisions by commercial banks operating in Kenya and has registered a rapid growth recently. The study sought to find out the information systems (IS) functions which were outsourced by the banks and rank the factors influencing IS outsourcing decision according to importance. To achieve this, the study adopted an exploratory study in which all the 45 banks in Kenya were studied. The study used self administered questionnaires to collect data, which was analysed using various analytical tools. The study established that commercial banks mainly outsource functions such as systems implementation, network services, software and hardware maintenance, and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) services. The study further established that factors such as cost, desire for quality, size of organization, and business strategy, among others, influenced the banks' decisions to outsource IS functions to a large extent. The study established that the small banks had a higher level of IS outsourcing as compared to large and medium banks. This is attributed to lack of technical capacity and need to deliver quality service at a minimal cost. The study revealed that operational costs was ranked as number one driver of outsourcing decision by commercial banks operating in Kenya followed by the desire for quality and organizational size respectively. The study concluded that though cost was the main driver of outsourcing decision, there existed other factors which were equally important such as desire for quality and business strategy among others.