Contact Centre to Focus on Outsourcing Business
(Abu Dhabi | By A Staff Reporter | 14/04/2002)

Etisalat's Ajman-based Contact Centre plans to aggressively focus on outsourcing business with the concept catching on with local and international companies.

Currently, Etisalat is in talks with European airlines and some travel agencies to handle long-term outsourcing requirements and short-term solutions for promotions, market research or specific campaigns.

"Customers have started outsourcing business to Etisalat's Contact Centre and these include local and international companies. We have been approached by companies from the U.S., Europe, Canada to set up facilities within our centre to promote and sell products on behalf of these companies," Mohamed Bamakhrama, general manager, the Contact Centre, Etisalat told Gulf News.

Significantly, Etisalat is looking at this Dh80 million Contact Centre (set up in November 2001) as a business unit by itself having its own management and generating revenues, he said.

Among the services the Contact Centre has been providing include tele-marketing, market research and similar services to certain clients.

"Our services for Etisalat customers is satisfactory and going very well but we now want a bigger share of non-Etisalat business."

Towards this end, Etisalat will target banks, hotels and tourism related companies. The Contract Centre will soon rent space at its spacious premises, said Bamakhrama. "We expect that to happen soon."

Since it was formally opened in November 2001, the Contact Centre has introduced and enhanced many services.

The growth in traffic has increased considerably with the centre handling some 190,000 directory enquiry calls on average daily, 30,000 internet related calls, 100 e-shop related calls and a similar number of Thuraya related calls. That apart, it also handles some 25-30,000 mobile support calls and some 7000 false calls.

Bamakhrama said other GCC countries have evinced interest in the Contact Centre having sent delegations to study and replicate such a centre in their countries.

"Ours is a showpiece for the Middle East. Nothing like this is available in the region and we are ready to offer consultancy on this."

The Contact Centre has a staff of 750 of which 70 per cent are nationals, he said.