CAIRO: Yahoo has chosen IBM to operate its customer care center in Cairo's Smart Village, officials said Wednesday. The center will be the contact point for Yahoo customers in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, offering support in Arabic, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Soon support will be available in nine languages with the addition of Turkish, Polish, Romanian and Russian. “Yahoo has made a strong commitment to growth in the Middle East, and our new support for Arabic-speaking users around the world is a significant milestone toward our goals for the region,” said Jeff Russakow, global president of consumer advocacy for Yahoo, on the company's new operations in Egypt. Initially providing only 80 local jobs, the center will quickly expand in the coming months by filling 250-300 positions; after which it grow organically depending on demand. Yahoo executives foresee serious potential in growth for its services in the region, as internet penetration and use is consistently increasing. There are 55-60 million Arabic internet users — which represents 5 percent of internet users globally — of which 10 million are Egyptian. Meanwhile, only 1 percent of internet content is offered in Arabic, Ahmed Nassef, vice president and managing director of Yahoo for the Middle East, told Daily News Egypt in an exclusive interview. “Taking into consideration these figures, there is huge growth potential to develop content for the Arab speaking world, and ramping up our operations here in Egypt is part of capitalizing on this opportunity,” Nassef said. Yahoo and IBM executives expressed their enthusiasm for working in the Egyptian market not only due to the high growth potential of the country, but also the large pool of multilingual talent available as well as the government being supportive when responding to the private sectors' needs. Russakow said, “Taking into consideration the some 330,000 graduates …every year, of which 10,000 take courses to prepare them for work in the outsourcing sector — thanks to support from the Egyptian government's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITDA) — as well as the strong language skills that the local people possess, Egypt is therefore an ideal location for companies such as Yahoo. with outsourcing needs.” Amr Talaat, general manager of IBM Egypt, explained the strides the government has made in promoting a business-friendly environment to attract companies such as IBM and Yahoo: “The Egyptian government has provided state-of-the-art infrastructure, such as Smart Village — the site where IBM has part of its local operations, as well as buildings and telecommunications.” He continued, “the government has taken and in turned applied the lessons of the last 10 years of developments throughout the world on how to promote growth, which has resulted in Egypt becoming a prime location for foreign firms.” Underscoring the work ethic and energy that Egyptians bring to the work place, David Brooks, BPD delivery manager of IBM, said, “It is truly impressive to see the dedication of our staff which begins their day at 4 am, as well as their innate ability to positively interact with customers. This is absolutely fundamental to any outsourcing operation.” Russsakow said, “Our client support employees are the face to our roughly 600 million customers, so it is critical that these employees be engaging and outgoing, which is indeed the case for the Egyptian people. “Moreover, it is part of Yahoo's strategy to be a global company that is in tune with local events and culture. Thus, from a practical point of view, our new operations in Egypt are essential to this end.” Through Yahoo's new operations, Shailendra Singh, IBM director of sales, CRM Solution MBS-America, pointed out that for every job that is created through the call center, between four and five peripheral jobs will be created in the local economy.
