The Saudi economy has the potential to accelerate in growth by utilizing the services of business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, said an industry expert.

“There is ample business literature to confirm that companies who have a strong focus on their core competency tend to outperform those that have divided focus across various different areas. Instead of focusing their energies on doing one thing very well they dilute their performance by spreading their energies on multiple aspects of their business,” explained said Joe Tawfik, CEO of Dubai-based Kinetic BPO, a specialist BPO company.

“What BPO companies offer is the ability to take away the energy spent on some business processes to enable a company to have greater focus on its core business. Contact centres, for example, are very important in managing customer interaction.

“What we find in the region is many companies are not utilizing the full potential of their centres. This in turn is slowing the growth of these companies. A best practice contact centre delivers real value to a company because it makes it easier for a customer to buy goods and services from a company. These good customer experiences in turn accelerate the growth of a company,” he added.

An industry report by IDC places the worldwide BPO market to reach $202.6 billion in 2016, representing a five-year CAGR of 5.3 per cent. The growth rate in Saudi Arabia is expected to be greater since the marketplace is underpenetrated. Kinetic BPO predicts the growth rate at closer to 30 per cent in Saudi as opposed to the global average of 5 per cent.

“There is an enormous opportunity in Saudi to create a whole new working culture in the marketplace without upsetting the accepted social norms,” Tawfik said.

“The BPO industry has a successful track record of providing a large and sustainable home worker workforce. This would be ideal for the employment of Saudi women. If the BPO industry is properly supported by private and public enterprise then we would expect that the industry could easily employ over 50,000 women in the next 5 years.

“This would enable women to be introduced into the workforce without compromising socially and culturally accepted practices in Saudi.  This would enable women to participate in the country’s evolving economy without radical cultural change,” he added.

Kinetic BPO has the know-how and the expertise to operate a world best practice BPO operation in Saudi that will help achieve some of the economic effects available from growing the BPO industry, Tawfik said.

“We can help reduce the unemployment rate by introducing women into the workforce, create cost-savings through delivery of efficient business processes and improve the overall customer experience for consumers dealing with Saudi companies. All of these components together can have a powerful impact on the Saudi economy”, concluded Tawfik. – TradeArabia News Service