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in person
exceeding expectations
for adel danish, managing egypt’s largest call
center is all about finding the right people to say “hello”
in the right way. egyptians might not have a long history in the
call center business, but danish believes that with the right management,
training and the ability to capitalize on already existing talents,
egyptian call centers have a chance to become among the biggest
success stories in the industry.
by rehab el-bakry
frustrated business clients will tell you it’s not uncommon
to have a person answer the phone aggressively, pass off the call
to a series of incompetent employees and then have the call abruptly
disconnected, probably by an employee trying to free up the phone
to make a personal call. so when adel danish, ceo and chairman of
xceed, tells people he has plans to turn egypt into a first-class
international hub for outsourced customer service calls, it’s
not surprising that people respond with skepticism. yet, two years
into the game, danish looks destined to have the last laugh.
xceed has surpassed all expectations, growing 10 times its size
in its first two years of operation and landing contracts with major
international clients such as microsoft, oracle and general motors.
located in the smart village, the call center’s 1,000 customer
support representatives (csrs) field calls from egypt, europe and
north america in nine different languages. and by all accounts,
there’s plenty of room to grow.
the company’s success has been built on egypt’s skilled
and highly adaptable labor pool. but it is equally a result of danish’s
ability to envision and carry out an ambitious plan to brand egypt
as viable outsource destination for western companies seeking low-cost,
high-quality customer support for their operations.
danish brings to xceed a wealth of experience gleamed from nearly
three decades in the private sector, much of it spent in the us
and france. after graduating from cairo university’s faculty
of engineering in 1972, he moved to paris to complete his phd in
computer science at the university of paris. he soon joined ibm’s
scientific center in paris, first as part of its research department,
then later as part of the sales and marketing team.
in 1978, danish and his brother, sherif, launched standarddata,
a paris-based it consulting firm that specialized in adapting cutting
edge it solutions to the egyptian market. they also opened a number
of it firms in the us, including polytel computer products corp.,
danish international inc. and saqqara systems inc.
among the highlights of their work was the creation of a new interface
that simplified data entry on apple computers, reducing a long series
of instructions to a single keystroke. “we patented it and
then continued developing the product in the us,” he recalls.
as standarddata grew, the brothers looked to expand. they opened
a branch in cairo, entering the egyptian market at a time when computers
were a luxury and it consulting was virtually unheard of. danish
headed the company’s egypt operations and guided it to success
in landing contracts with private sector firms that embraced new
computer technology.
his ability to identify and exploit potential it opportunities attracted
the attention of then minister of communications and information
technology ahmed nazif, who was seeking a handful of it-savvy visionaries
to shore up the state’s fixed-line telephone monopoly, telecom
egypt (te). nazif selected danish to join te’s board and recharge
the stagnated public sector company. the following year, he appointed
him as the head of masreya information systems (mis), telecom egypt’s
newly formed it arm.
the goal behind mis was to formulate it solutions to help improve
relations between telecom egypt and its clients. “to say that
five or six years ago the dealings between te and its customers
left a lot to be desired would be an understatement,” says
danish. “it was common for people to line up for hours in the
sun just to finish the simplest task such as paying a phone bill
or subscribing to a new service, which seemed insane.”
danish’s team recognized that by default all telecom egypt
clients owned telephones, so it only made sense to use phones as
part of the solution. they formulated a plan for a call center manned
by highly trained csrs to handle all telephone inquiries for te.
the idea of xceed was born.
it was 2001 and te had plans to launch its own gsm mobile network.
the new call center would handle inquiries from telecom egypt’s
fixed-line subscribers, as well as its new mobile customers. “we
estimated that te would need around 300 seats with another 300 or
400 for its mobile operation. so in total, we would need around
700 seats,” he says.
construction began in may 2002, but just months short of completion
te had a change of heart about its mobile endeavors and announced
it would not seek a gsm license. suddenly, xceed’s future was
in doubt.
but instead of scaling back the operation, danish argued the call
center should be expanded. why stop at te? danish envisioned a 1,000-seat
call center that would serve not just the telephone operator, but
local and international clients as well. outsourcing customer support
to offshore call centers has become the trend with western corporations
seeking to lower their bottom line. an estimated 150,000 csrs at
call centers in india, the philippines, mexico and other developing
countries provide professional customer support with lower wages
and overhead. analysts predict the number of csrs to grow to 241,000
by the end of 2007. if egypt plays its cards right, danish believes
it has a good chance to tap into this growing market.
we have an ideal location and a very good and growing telecommunication
system. but most of all, we have a large pool of talented people
who speak a variety of languages. this is a rare qualification to
offer clients seeking outsourcing destinations,” says danish.
xceed fielded its first call for te in june 2003. the following
year it netted its first big international client. software giant
microsoft was looking to outsource its first-line customer service
and sent requests for proposals (rfps) to over a dozen call centers
worldwide. danish’s team put together a proposal and “to
our surprise, they asked us to present our pitch.”
in fall 2003, danish and his team went to microsoft europe headquarters
in dublin, ireland to sell their idea. “we put our hearts and
souls into the presentation,” he recalls. “i remember
that when we started the presentation the microsoft [representatives]
weren’t really paying much attention and didn’t take us
seriously for the first five minutes. but then they tuned in, and
they liked what they heard.”
obviously. following a series of visits by teams from microsoft’s
head office to inspect everything from data backup systems to the
quality of food in the staff canteen, microsoft awarded xceed a
contract in june 2004. danish remains hush on the details, but if
similar contracts are anything to go on, the call center could generate
$25,000 per year per seat.
microsoft was a big account, but egypt was still just a speck on
the international offshore outsourcing map. danish knew the company
couldn’t simply wait for clients to come – it had to actively
pursue them. “this was not just about promoting xceed, but
also about promoting egypt. we thought one of the best ways of doing
this was to get opinion makers [such as] research firms including
gartner group, datamonitor, idc or mckenzie to cover egypt’s
potential.”
it took several months of lobbying, but persistence paid off. in
february 2005, a team from british business information company
datamonitor visited egypt. their glowing review of xceed and the
handful of call centers in egypt, including raya, c-3, ecco and
tamima, put egypt on the radar screen.
the february 2005 report “emerging opportunities in offshore
outsourcing in egypt” predicted that international demand for
egyptian call centers would experience a compounded annual growth
rate of just over 50 percent by 2009, at which point egypt is expected
to have around 4,000 seats employing up to 13,000 people on a three-shift
basis.
egypt’s call center aspirations seem small
fry when compared to those of rival india, where call centers are
expected to account for 250,000 jobs by 2009. but then again, danish
points out india has been at this game for a lot longer and has
a population base of 1.4 billion people at its disposal.
egypt, however, has some distinct advantages, particularly when
it comes to linguistic skills. trained egyptian csrs tend to speak
english with a more understandable accent. in addition, egypt’s
historical ties with europe have given it a greater range of second
languages, making it possible to offer a more versatile service.
danish notes that the profile of call centers in egypt is different
from that of india. “if you look at the call centers in egypt,
you’ll see that the ones with [offshore] outsourcing capabilities
are all local companies.” this is very different from the profile
in india, where you have the multinational operators in the call
center outsourcing business establishing outlets there. local indian
call centers hardly make up 10 percent of the sector.”
if growth continues at the current pace, egypt’s call center
industry will exceed analysts’ expectations. the datamonitor
study predicts 1,500 offshore outsourced seats by 2007, a figure
already surpassed in 2005.
the report predicts 3,775 outsourced seats by 2009. danish expects
more. “i think by 2009 we’ll probably have more like 5,000
or 6,000 seats,” he says confidently.
but to attain this growth, egypt will need to actively promote itself
as a call center destination. as the largest and the sole government-owned
call center, xceed is expected to take the lead. “this is a
very awkward position for us to be in,” danish admits. while
xceed is a public sector company, it operates like a private sector
firm and without the comfort of a monopoly. “i believe in competition
100 percent because i spent most of my life in the private sector
where if you don’t compete, you go under. we don’t have
a traditional monopoly, nor do we want one. but at the same time,
we don’t want to be competing against egyptian private sector
operators – at least not for the local accounts.”
instead, he hopes to see fierce competition for international clients,
as this will encourage best practice, generate high revenues, create
jobs and attract foreign businesses. but even amongst this rivalry
is a need for cooperation. whenever there is an international conference
or exhibition, local operators put aside differences to formulate
a unified strategy to bring new clients to egypt.
eventually, the market players will find their targets. “for
now, we’re all concentrating on attracting the investors to
egypt but soon, i predict, we’ll each begin specializing on
specific profiles of clients or account sizes,” he says. “i
think that we [xceed] will soon attract the big accounts of the
multinationals where we focus more on inbound traffic than outbound
traffic – we’re talking of accounts with 100 seats or
more. on other hand, other operators may decide to focus their attention
on the smaller clients with 10 to 15 seats. we’ll each have
our niche.”
perhaps the biggest challenge facing egyptian call centers is the
recruitment process – finding and training local csrs able
to field calls in a foreign language at the professional level demanded
by western clients. the company currently offers services in nine
languages: english, arabic, french, italian, german, spanish, portuguese,
hebrew and greek. it has contracted language training schools berlitz
and lingua to conduct the language screening of applicants.
finding candidates who can speak a second language fluently is one
thing, but training them to understand and relate with western clients
is another. egyptians are accustomed to poor service and have low
expectations, admits danish, “so how could they give good service
if they never expect to receive it? changing their mindset was a
key to giving people good and efficient service.”
xceed’s csr recruits receive four to six months of comprehensive
training in inbound and outbound telephone techniques. the recruits
learn how to recognize different accents, identify what services
clients are seeking and respond in an appropriate manner.
csrs handling foreign accounts receive ongoing language and cultural
training based on the feedback of a quality control monitoring team.
they are also briefed daily on the news and even the weather of
their clients’ location so that they can better relate with
callers. but danish is against the practice of giving csrs western-sounding
aliases, as is the practice in india and elsewhere, insisting that
experience has proven that most clients prefer to know the real
identity of the person to whom they are speaking. in most cases
clients are pleasantly surprised to hear egyptian csrs speaking
their language fluently.
the ministry of communications and information technology (mcit)
has pitched in, subsidizing the training of 1,000 individuals according
to the specifications of the call centers on the condition that
they agree to hire at least 70 per cent of the trainees. so far,
the program has proven extremely successful, says danish, adding
that local call centers including xceed hired 80 percent of the
first batch of graduates.
danish is the first to admit it’s a stressful job. employees
work eight-hour shifts that include a lunch hour and two 15 minute
breaks. the busiest shift begins at 2pm, which coincides with the
start of the work day in north america. another begins at 6am, requiring
most employees to wake up at 4am.
call centers traditionally have a high turnover rate, with employees
holding their position for just 6-15 months on average. but that’s
not the case in egypt, he insists. xceed, recognizing that csrs
are the most important component of the company, has tried to create
attractive job packages and the best possible working environment.
“these csrs are the real assets of the company, not the building
or the equipment,” he says. “one of the biggest challenges
is that at the end of every working day these assets go home and
it’s my job to ensure they come back the next day.”
a stunning location helps. xceed’s four-story headquarters
is located in the green oasis of mcit’s smart village. the
futuristic glass-paneled building is divided into two sections,
one for the call center and the other for the administration, connected
by a glass walkway. ergonomic office furniture, including work desks
customized by architouch and office chairs imported from spain,
ensure that csrs are as comfortable as possible.
danish prides himself on offering competitive salaries and a list
of extra perks, which include a fully equipped gym, spacious staff
lounge, health clinic and a cafeteria that he says serves such good
food that he himself eats there every day. yet he admits the smart
village is a long commute for many employees. the company does,
however, provide free shuttle service to heliopolis, maadi, mohandiseen
and downtown cairo.
contrary to the popular perception of a call center as a chaotic
office where phones ring incessantly, xceed’s office space
is remarkably quiet. in fact, there are no phones ringing. instead,
csrs hear a beep in their headset indicating an incoming call. “they
usually have four seconds [to answer] before we push the next call
through [to another csr] but, for example during the te billing
cycle, we push calls every two seconds,” explains danish.
the company currently handles customer service for telecom egypt’s
8.3 million subscribers. its 1,000 csrs also manage a number of
small local accounts as well as six international clients including
microsoft, oracle, general motors and net one.
danish says he hopes to lure more multinationals to egypt and is
confident that the country’s nascent call center industry can
find a share in the growing market for offshore call centers. he
says egypt’s robust telecommunication network, competitively
priced labor and high language proficiency can help it grab a share
of the dynamic global industry. “i believe that the only place
for us to go is international,” he says. “this is a growing
industry and if we succeed to position ourselves correctly, we’ll
tap into this sector and grow.”
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