Title:Xceed: pioneering the contact center industry in Egypt. Author(s):Sherif Kamel and Maha Hussein.  Source:Journal of Cases on Information Technology   10.11 (Jan-March 2008): p67(25). (10198 words)  Document Type:Magazine/Journal Bookmark:Bookmark this Document Library Links: http://find.galegroup.com/itx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C16%29business+and+ict%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28AC%2CNone%2C8%29fulltext%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T002&prodId=CDB&searchId=R1&currentPosition=1&userGroupName=ukm&docId=A172515486&docType=IAC

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The global spending on outsourcing has exceeded one trillion U.S. dollars in 2000 and it is expected to reach much higher heights by 2010. Outsourcing represents a major opportunity for developing nations with different capacities and skills in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) coupled with communication, business, and marketing capacities of their human capital. Contact centers are one of the growing trends that can benefit from the opportunities enabled through outsourcing. Over the last decade, India, the Philippines, and Mexico took the lead in the contact center industry in the context of developing nations. Moreover, in the 1990s Egypt, through its massive efforts to position itself as one of the ICT hubs in the Middle East, had started its efforts to develop itself as a destination for offshore outsourcing as well as penetrating the global marketplace for contact centers. This case demonstrates the process of establishing Xceed, the pioneer contact center in Egypt serving a global community of customers and excelling to become one of the brand names of the industry worldwide.

Keywords: call center, contact center; developing nations; Egypt; information technology transfer; information and communication technology; offshoring; outsourcing

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND

On a sunny afternoon, Adel Danish, president and CEO of Xceed, sat in his office, with his two vice presidents, Ahmed Refky and Alaa El-Shafei. They had been discussing the future of the company. Danish stood up and went to look out the window. The sight he met was of vast desert, with a number of scattered state-of-the-art buildings and several others still under construction. All of the company's achievements and future aspirations came into view. They had done so well in the past, and the future looked promising. One of the challenging formulas that they managed to realize, and made the case unique and different, was to successfully manage Xceed as a private company although being a purely public establishment. However, despite the achievement of the past, management needed to strategize which road should they travel, and what was best for the business to grow and compete?

Xceed, Egypt's pioneer and leading contact center, premises were located in a smart village complex, which was inaugurated in 2004 to be Egypt's premier technology park, built on 450 acres on the outskirts of Cairo (Egypt). Located approximately 20 minutes from the center of one of the busiest capitals of the world and a few kilometers from the great pyramids, the smart village is central to all major destinations within greater Cairo. The idea behind the smart village initially conceived in 1989 was to create a space where information technology companies could operate within a community conducive to their business needs. Microsoft, Alcatel, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson, and Vodafone Egypt represent a sample of the IT organizations that have moved premises to the smart village. Once all the phases of development were completed, the smart village would accommodate 67 office plots and approximately 30,000 employees within a total office area of 1,336,000 square meters. Ninety percent of the smart village had been designed to encompass an expansive green area, lakes and streams, making it an ideal location for doing business.

In an effort to promote and encourage public private partnership (PPP), the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), established in 1999, relocated its premises to the smart village (www.mcit.gov.eg). The mandate of MCIT was to support and empower the information society in Egypt. This was reflected in its involvement in different projects related specifically to business and industry development in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and in its commitment to providing universal access to telecommunications services (Kamel, 2005b). MCIT supported the expansion of the telecommunications services through deregulation, liberalization, and government-private sector partnerships. It also encouraged foreign direct investment (FDI) as well

as the transfer of technology into the nation to support in the overall business and socioeconomic development (Kamel, 2006).

In 2002, the World Trade Organization (WTO) granted Egypt permission to liberalize its telecom market. Accordingly, the government set a deregulation plan towards the end of 2005, identifying a number of objectives to be realized. These included setting-up the environment for multi-operators and multimedia services while reiterating the telecommunications regulatory authority organizational structure, regulatory rules, and directives. This involved the liberalization of basic and international voice services along with the introduction of new services and technologies (MCIT, 2005).

Egypt rapidly developed a sophisticated telephone network and a modern and reliable fixed line; mobile and Internet networks have already been established and moving at a fast pace. Such advancements constituted optimum conditions for a strong and promising contact center industry in Egypt. Since 1999, MCIT had taken steps to ensure the deregulation of the telephone market. Telecom Egypt (TE) monopoly over communications services was disintegrated and the company was scheduled for liberalization in December 2005. In a special effort to develop the contact center industry, the government dropped telephone rates to Europe and North America rates, standing at approximately 0.07 U.S. dollars and 0.05 U.S. dollars per minute, respectively. In order to guarantee that Egypt would remain competitive in the telecommunications sector, MCIT is continuously developing partnerships with several major global communications firms including Siemens, Alcatel, and Cisco, to train engineering graduates and to establish an IT-literate workforce as part of the overall efforts to build Egypt information society (Kamel, 2005a). Ahmed Nazif, prime minister of Egypt said in 2004 "we have taken long and steady steps towards achieving our goal of becoming an information society, but we feel that this is only the beginning. Creative professionals, a supportive government, and a healthy business environment have been the key to our current success, and they will continue to be fundamental to our future achievements."

It is important to note that when Xceed first started their call center operation in 2003, their vision was to become the foremost provider of outsourced customer contact solutions for commercial and government customers in Egypt and the region, with aspirations to attract other opportunities globally. From the start, Xceed developed an extensive customer list that included the likes of local telecommunications giant TE, with a customer base of more than 10 million subscribers as well as leading local and global ICT companies such as Microsoft EMEA, Microsoft Egypt, Oracle Global Product Support Center, EDS, NetOne, Nestle Waters, and France Cegetel Neuf Telecom. Moreover, the list included local ministries such as MCIT and the Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) in addition to the Aviation Information Technology, Carrefour, and CIT Global. In 2005, Xceed managed an average of 1.6 million customer contacts per month both live and via electronic interaction. Nearly 840 Xceed employees operated from the company unique state-of-the-art facility, and services were offered in nine different languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, and Hebrew (www.xceedcc.com).

SETTING THE STAGE

The story of Xceed started long before the current smart village location was inaugurated. When MCIT was established in 1999, significant transformation took place and numerous opportunities began to present themselves. A new board was appointed in June 2000 to cope with these changes. This is when Danish joined the board of directors of TE, the sole fixed line telecommunications operator in Egypt. One year later, Nazif, the minister of communications and information technology at the time, expressed the need for establishing a company which would function as the IT arm of TE, a second entity that would work as the data communication arm, and a third to become the mobile operator. Accordingly, Masreya (Arabic translation for Egyptian) Information Systems, the IT arm of TE, was established in September 2001, and the 10-employee company was set up in rented offices in a commercial building downtown Cairo.

Masreya had a mandate to design and develop solutions for the two problem areas facing TE: the billing system and the customer relationship management (CRM) program. The recommendation to replace the in-house developed system with a state-of-the-art off-the-shelf package capable of handling billing system problems was swiftly resolved with the in-house development of an application that tracked the subscription status. The CRM program presented more of a challenge. When the team looked to see what the existing resources were to develop the program, they found that none was available. In the absence of any frame of reference, they had to come up with a solution that would address the problem, from scratch. After undertaking further research into the possibilities of implementation, it was realized that it was necessary to create a call/contact center. With a vision for long-term success, Danish, a veteran of initiating major and successful IT projects in Egypt, France, and the United States, started to entertain the possible provision of such a service in Egypt, not only to serve the local market but also to provide worldwide offshore outsourcing services. Danish decided to study the concept further. In taking his decision, he had several models in

mind including the Indian and Irish models. His previous experience with Eircom, the telecommunications company, led him to visit them and explore their business model.

At the time, customer support for TE was provided by numerous local homegrown call centers and a different phone number was allocated to each TE branch. The decision was made to eradicate all these separate customer support lines and group them into one call center. The initial number of seats suggested was between 500 to 600 seats, which were to be divided between fixed line and mobile phone services with 200-300 seats for fixed lines and 300 seats for mobile lines. During that time, TE was in the process of launching a mobile operator; however, due to market and economic reasons at the time, the plan was postponed to a later date.

When the Xceed team realized the magnitude of the operation and the quality of service they had in mind, it became apparent that they could not continue to operate from within a small office space and the search for a more suitable location began. The team visited several locations but could not find anything that would adequately accommodate their needs. Eventually, it was decided that in order to promote and further develop the smart village complex as a growing and promising technology park, the call center would be built on its premises. This would enable it to be better positioned in the local market and be able to compete in an ever-growing global marketplace that has long been characterized as both dynamic and subject to fierce competition and rapid development. The decision to build the call center involved a major change in strategy. Instead of the call center operating mainly for TE, the management thought of expanding its scope and transforming it into revenue generating contact center. This meant that the contact center would maintain its role as the call center support for TE while expanding its seats to enable it to sell its services to other opportunities in the global marketplace.

In May 2002, the design of the premises commenced and contractors began working on the location at the smart village. The design of the building had to take into account the fact that Masreya Information Systems was still the IT arm of TE and not solely a call center. A division in the business objective had to be clear and manifested in the physical location. This distinction is quite apparent: one building houses, the management of Masreya Information Systems and the other building houses Xceed, the contact center. The two adjacent buildings are joined together by a bridge to allow flexibility in the future. When the company was first established, it was 92.5% owned by TE, the remaining amount was equally owned by the three major local state banks; National, Misr, and Cairo banks, at 2.5% per bank. Capital was later raised in 2005, making TE's share at 98.5% and the bank's at 0.5% each.

The decision to put the mobile operator on hold freed up almost 300 seats in the contact center capacity, making it a 25%-75% share between TE and possible accounts from the global market. The decision was made to market the 75% at the global level for export. The call center was designed to accommodate 1,000 seats by 2005 and 1,200 by 2007 or earlier should the need arise, based on market needs and opportunities enabled. The official inauguration of the contact center took place on September 22, 2003. In an attempt to find a suitable name for the contact center, the management carried out a survey within the company, where people had to choose one out of five names they considered to be catchy, interesting, marketable, global, and in some way representative of the service. The final decision was Xceed, and true to its name since its establishment, the company had been exceeding its expectations in terms of the quality of service provided, exposure, and in its capacity to reach out to the global market and take the lead in providing a supreme customer service.

According to Danish "Xceed was chosen for its dynamism and the implications of the name. We are not in the business of satisfying the customer; we are in the business of delighting them and exceeding their expectations." Xceed was not just a contact center, it was the seed of a growing industry. It is important to note that in 2005, the company was by far the largest capacity contact center in Egypt and the region. Furthermore, the Xceed contact center was ready to operate and compete in the global market, attracting customers from different regions around the world. The unwritten vision of the business was that it would provide opportunities for the youth and future generations; every seat accommodated approximately three employees, which translated into 3,000 job opportunities. The use of IT was intended to boost call center performance whereas making targeted improvements involving more cost-effective technologies help boost operations and increase revenues using IT (Pietraszek & Ramchandran, 2006).

The Industry

The literature review of the outsourcing industry indicates that among the reasons for successfully outsourcing contact centers is explaining that the customer service strategy needed to be well defined and progressive and not just to provide a good service (Khandelwal & Gilson, 2005). Companies successful in outsourcing their call centers normally increased their revenue by 20% to 35%, cut costs by 15% to 25%, and improved the quality of their customer relationship management. Exhibit 1 portrays the key offshore motivators for customer care investors. The

case explained that the concept of call centers was designed to enable companies to respond to customer questions. Initially, call centers were not seen as a business opportunity but simply a tool for handling inquiries. The change came in the 1990s when call centers became automated and CRM packages were integrated into call center technologies. There is no doubt that call centers have become essential to the marketing and customer care strategies of many businesses over the past 30 years (Khandelwal & Gilson, 2005). Moreover, there is no doubt that outsourcing of information services is transforming the nature of business in the information industry (Clark, Zmud, & McGray, 1998).

The global offshore-outsourced contact center market will grow from 138,000 agent positions in 2004 to 241,000 agent positions by the end of 2007 due to the cost saving schemes that many western companies have implemented, as indicated by a research study conducted by Datamonitor in 2005. Egypt is currently considered a viable customer service choice for companies wanting to reduce overhead costs, while maintaining a very high degree of customer interaction quality. "Call centers are going to move to Mauritius, they're going to move to Egypt, where they have a call center of 1,000 people now that works for Microsoft." This statement was made by Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, in an IT convention in India (Friedman, 2005a, 2005b). He continued, "A call center that would have gone to Bangalore 5 years ago; now it's in Cairo."

Currently, all Fortune 500 companies have at least one call center (Gilson & Khandelwal, 2005). By 2007, domestic and foreign outsourcers would be expected to employ about 12% of all call center agents serving North America, and offshoring to foreign markets would account for 7% of the total number of positions. Datamonitor estimates that the total market size for the Egypt-based outsourced contact centers in 2005 is 655 agent positions. This number was expected to rise rapidly over the next 5 years, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over 50%, to 3,775 agent positions by 2009. Agent positions in Egypt were at par with key near shore markets including Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The Datamonitor study also noted that despite the fact that the number of agent positions forecast was relatively small, Egypt contact center offshore outsourcing had the potential to exceed projected levels. This would depend on the ability of local outsourcers to sell their services to foreign firms, overcome existing perceptions of the domestic business climate, and compete with other offshore destinations. As indicated in exhibits 2 and 3, in 2005, Egypt was very competitive as an offshore-outsourced contact center destination. The total cost included the cost paid for and the wages earned by the particular customer care agent listed. Specifically, Egypt, at 54% of the cost of a U.S. inbound voice-based customer care agent, was a less expensive option than central European locations including Hungary and Poland. Egypt was less costly on an agent basis than Canada and Mexico; both favored locations of U.S.-based outsourced customer care (Datamonitor, 2005). The only market that was still cheaper than Egypt was India. However, it should be noted that the cost difference between the two locations was marginal and was offset by the additional costs incurred in India, such as telecom transportation. In addition, the overall cost to the outsourcer should take into account the extra cost of the high attrition rates in India (80%-100%) compared to Egypt (Datamonitor, 2005). Given the mentioned industry profile, it is important to note that at the time this case was developed, Xceed was not the sole player in the local marketplace; there were three local competitors, namely:

* C-3 provided a variety of multilingual services to both domestic and global customers, serving callers in Europe and the United States. Languages serviced at C-3 included Arabic, English, and French. Both inbound and outbound calls were handled at C-3 offices which were located in Cairo. Global customers include Wall Street Journal Europe, Tele-2, and Banque de Poste Belge.

* Raya Contact Center was established in 2000. Raya contact center belonged to Raya holdings, one of the leading local IT companies in Egypt. The contact center provided outsourcing services to both domestic and global firms. Located in Cairo, Raya agents handled both inbound and outbound services in Arabic, English, French, and German. Raya operated to serve manufacturing, logistics, and petroleum production.

* Ecco was established in 2000 as a subsidiary of the National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), an Egyptian IT and Telco firm. The company is located in the cyber center commercial zone. Ecco serviced domestic and international customers in a variety of languages including Arabic, Italian, and English. Key vertical markets served included financial services, telecoms, and the public sector. Both inbound and outbound services were available.

Egypt, as a resourceful nation, was competitive in terms of providing well-educated potential contact center agents. This was due to the 250,000+ university graduates each year. Such a large number was accentuated by the focus on IT within these institutions, with an increasing percentage of students graduating in this discipline annually reaching close to 1.5%. The labor force is also known for its proficiency in western languages, because the university

instruction is carried out predominantly in English, with some institutions also focusing on French and German. In addition, there were several very large postsecondary institutions located in Egypt, funded by foreign governments, including the United States, UK, Canada, France, and Germany, each of which produce many multilingual graduates annually (Moheeb, 2006). Being a top tourism destination for decades helped in creating a multilingual, customer service oriented workforce.

CASE DESCRIPTION

Xceed began its operation of the contact center business around mid-2003 as the pioneers of outsourcing in Egypt in the call center industry, with an array of state-of-the-art inbound and outbound services that were customized to meet their customers' needs (Bossone, 2006). In addition to customized service solutions, Xceed provided customer relationship management services and Internet-based customer care and technical support services. Xceed depends on five pillars in conducting their business including high performance and quality assurance, cross cultural management, business continuity plans, ultimate business solutions, and multilingual capabilities.

The Business model

Through global sourcing, Xceed had extended an offshore arm to offer its portfolio of services to customers around the globe. Xceed's ultimate business formula was to realize a business ratio of 60% local and 40% offshore by the end of 2005. This formula would shift to 20% local and 80% offshore by the end of 2008. Xceed identified its target market in terms of two essential factors: its recruitment capacity and the availability of resources, in addition to the existence of outsource-ability culture in different markets reflecting the readiness of different human capacities to deal with different cultures, values, and attitudes and cater for their needs. Addressing the local market, Xceed identified multinationals as the sector most prone to outsourcing in 2005. At the international level, Xceed decided to maintain a wider span of customers and include several possible sectors. Figure 1 depicts the strategic vision of Xceed.

The Xceed team was aware that as processes became more complex, quality improvement in services would become a key driver for growth. There would be a move from low-end and back-office work to high value-added services. Outsourcers would increasingly be looking for one-stop solutions, whereby they could retain cost advantages while adding value in terms of service and quality. Cost arbitrage would stay but suppliers would have to scale up to extend benefits beyond cost. Xceed management considered themselves as key players of the contact center business in Egypt and recognized that they functioned as a pulling force for the whole contact center industry. Exhibit 4 demonstrates a SWOT analysis developed by the Xceed business development unit. With one targeted visionary goal, Xceed aimed to place Egypt alongside India and the Philippines in the contact center industry. In order to achieve that vision, acquiring the business of multinationals residing in Egypt, as well as acquiring small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) outbound business from Europe and the U.S., would ultimately position Xceed as a capable contact center with a record of accomplishments that would be ready for Fortune 500 company business acquisition. As for the local market for 2006, as shown in exhibits 5 and 6, Xceed forecasts revenues for newly acquired local businesses at 2% of the total projected new business revenues.

The Product

Xceed did not exclusively serve its parent company, TE. Rather, it served an array of customers and for that reason it had to be flexible and adaptable as an intermediary between different customers and where the specialization of services depended on each customer. The product was defined based on the needs of each customer, and each agent responsible for an account was trained accordingly. Xceed offered a number of products and services to customers, including (but not limited to) the following:

* Complaints management: fast response and catering to customers changing needs is an important factor that needs to be well addressed rather than focusing on specific problems faced that leads to customer dissatisfaction. Xceed management believed that the prime purpose of designing and developing robust and effective complaint management systems was to deliver enhanced profits by increasing revenues and reducing costs. In order to turn every complaint into a profit, a specialized, personalized team was made available to support a complaint line that was dedicated to receiving and replying to all customers complaints. Xceed agents were trained to make the situation right when handling both live and virtual complaints, including fax, Web chat, or e-mails. Xceed management were proud that the two major attributes that set them apart were the quality of training their agents received and their reporting accuracy.

* Customer retention programs: customer retention was vital for all companies because the cost of acquiring new customers was far greater than the cost of maintaining current customers. Xceed supported its customers in launching a retention program by conducting outbound phone surveys that capture specific data. Such data was then analyzed using distinctive software to determine which customers the firm was most interested in retaining, along with their needs, interests, and perceptions of the product. Xceed would help evaluate the customers' retention program using a similar strategy.

* Order handling: according to the New York Times, the Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix stated that response times measured from 250 Web sites indicated that only 30% of the retailers surveyed responded to online customer service requests within hours. More than 30% took longer than 3 days or did not respond at all. Xceed could guarantee that requests do not slip through. Agents were available 24/7 on all channels (phone, Web, e-mail, and fax) if needed, to take orders from customers, answer product inquiries, and process them directly.

* Tele-survey services: the challenge was not obtaining information about customers, but obtaining the right information by reaching the right people in order to serve the following purposes: customer-related opinion surveys, customer satisfaction measurement, and general surveys.

* Telemarketing services: agents acted as the marketing arm of the customer's organization and reached potential customers. The scope includes lead generation and lead qualification.

* Welcome calls: the outbound service was initiated by the agents on behalf of the customers to welcome new members to the services offered. New member welcome calls aimed to build customer loyalty straight away.

* Technical support: Xceed's contact center team were technology savvy agents who were available around the clock to support incoming calls, faxes, and e-mails in one or more of the following areas: hardware, software publishers, original equipment manufacturers, and Internet service providers.

* Database cleansing and enhancement--an outbound service performed by agents to maintain up-to-date prospect lists and customer databases for customers.

Commitment to quality

Commitment to quality and customer satisfaction was the essence of Xceed contact center operations. Xceed addressed quality in all aspects of its operations and considered it an entity-wide responsibility. Processes were designed according to customer requirements and with customer satisfaction in mind. Full process documentation and detailed work instructions were made available to ensure the consistency and effectiveness of operations. Processes were regularly audited to ensure that they were being performed as intended and in a consistent manner. The key performance indicators (KPI) were examined regularly to maintain control over processes and initiating process improvements took place whenever required. Transaction monitoring was essential and ensured that all customer contacts adhered to specific standards. Therefore, Xceed deployed a quality monitoring system that catered for a quantified and statistically valid representation of accounts' overall quality down to the individual agent's performance. To ensure the objectivity of the monitoring process conducted, Xceed deployed several layers of calibration. These calibrations ensured consistency among monitors. Furthermore, quality scores were calibrated with customer satisfaction data to obtain a complete picture of the customer contact experience.

In order to balance its internal controls, Xceed established various feedback mechanisms to ensure that customers and end users' feedback remained a key input and business driver. Xceed's voice of the customer (VoC) program catered to the measurement of both customer and customer satisfaction through regular surveys; it catered to response management to both customer and customer complaints. This commitment to quality was manifested in Xceed adherence to the world class standards. Xceed is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company. Additionally, Xceed aimed to be the first contact center in Africa and the Middle East to be certified against the rigorous customer operations performance center (COPC) standards. The certification was completed in December 2005 and Danish was all praise to his team, and he attributed the achievement wholly to them (Bossone, 2006).

The Team

Danish was very proud of the expansion of the team at Xceed. On December 31, 2005, there were 1,000 employees, 140 of whom were working in management and support. Exhibit 7 depicts the current organizational chart. Xceed was a pioneer at succeeding with managing public money using a private sector mentality; a model example replicating a number of successful models already in place in the UK public sector (Cronk & Sharp, 1998), but leading the pack in the developing countries context. The management style was invaluable in making the model so successful, magnified by the fact that the company drew on local experience and management expertise. Xceed was managed by two extremely high caliber vice presidents and a visionary chief executive officer (CEO). Adel Danish was the chairman and CEO responsible for directing and controlling the operations. He guided the company's strategic objectives and kept the financial targets in line with those agreed upon with the board of directors. Danish coordinated with TE and its subsidiaries in seeking business opportunities to ensure continuous growth.

Appointed to the Board of TE in late 2000, Danish brought over 30 years of unique business experience from the IT and telecommunications sectors in France, Egypt, and the United States. He had fulfilled the role of founder, co-founder, and managing director of several corporations throughout the world. Danish began his career as a researcher at the IBM Scientific Center in Paris, France. He then held several technical and marketing positions within IBM before starting Standardata SA, a hardware and software services provider in France, in 1978. Danish is a member of the U.S.-Egypt Business Council, a bilateral organization created by both governments to facilitate private sector business growth in Egypt and to strengthen trade and investment ties between the U.S. and Egypt.

Ahmed Refky, Xceed's VP for strategy and business development, holds a bachelor of science degree in computer and automatic control. He has over 20 years experience in the IT industry. Refky's career included a number of senior management positions, corporate business development, business and IT consulting, project management and planning, systems analysis and design, programming, customer support, and enterprise resource planning implementation. Prior to joining Xceed, Refky was the Middle East regional IS director for ABB, a leader in power and automation technologies. Alaa El-Shafei, Xceed's VP for operations holds a bachelor of science degree in electronics and communication. During the course of 19 years, El-Shafei held technical, managerial, and consulting positions in which he managed and oversaw the development of software applications, data and voice networking, and data centers' infrastructure. Prior to his senior role at Xceed, El-Shafei founded Bayanet, a systems integrator and software provider. Prior to that, El-Shafei was the general manager of Standardata SA, an implementer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications in Egypt and the Middle East.

Finally, special attention was given to the selection process of the middle management team to whom all contact agents report. Danish always refers to them as "my dream team." One major rule that Danish never breaks is "each manager is the only one responsible for hiring people reporting to him/her. I never ever forced a manager to hire someone in specific. I do have the right of veto for some key positions. Fortunately, I have never used it. It is a blessing and a delight to know everyday, when I am heading to my office in the smart village that I will be interacting with such a wonderful, talented, and motivated team."

The 700 contact center agents vary in age between 20 and 26, with 60% female. On average, agents work between 7 to 8 hours per day. In the contact center business, the attrition rate is quite high, meaning that enormous human resources capacities are required in order to handle the turnover. The recruitment and selection cycle for Xceed ensures a strong and balanced approach to hire the best talents in the market. The initial forecasted time-span for the start-up human resources cycle of selection, testing, hiring, and training is usually 2 months.

The recruitment Process

Xceed had access to good caliber agents; their selection process ensured that the best talents were chosen. Because Xceed was aware that the attrition rate was usually high in the contact center business, they developed motivational programs to complement their induction and provided on-the-job training programs. In addition, fringe benefit plans and a relaxing working environment ensured that lower turnover rates in the industry were maintained. The recruitment and selection process for the call center agents is designed to assess both the candidates' skills and attitude as demonstrated in Figure 2. Based on the competency profile of each job, the assessment process provides an objective way of measuring critical inbound and outbound call center skills before the hiring decision is made.

The prospective agents undergo a rigorous selection process designed to match their qualifications with the required position. The process includes a basic skills test that taps into IQ, simulation, customer service attitude, and spelling. Each agent is required to sit for a language and accent test carried out by two reputable international language institutes in Egypt. The final stage is a one-on-one interview with the human resources department personnel. The contact center ratio of supervisors, including team leaders, to customer service representatives was 1 to 10. The ratio of trainers to customer service representatives was 1 to 40. The layout of the contact center is very conducive to the

maintenance of agent/leader relationship. Every group of agents is seated in a cluster, and their leader was positioned in the outer shell so that they could provide immediate support.

Based on the level of complexity of the customers' product, each employee had to complete stipulated training hours through a combination of classroom and computer/technology-based training, and was required to pass very stringent evaluative tests. Xceed's training program consists of five primary phases to ensure optimal knowledge transfer to the staff, which is demonstrated as follows.

1. Induction Training: a 2-day session that introduces the candidates for recruitment to the contact center industry in general and familiarized them with the organizational culture.

2. Behavioral Training Program: the program develops and emphasizes the appropriate attitudes and behavioral skills that all contact center agents are required to possess to exceed customer satisfaction. The inbound-program is a 3-day session for all agents. Team leaders and supervisors normally require an additional leadership program.

3. Product and Service Training Program: the program is a combined effort between Xceed and the respective customer, whereby each customer delivers their specific train-the-trainer (TTT) program for selected trainers, which is disseminated to all concerned personnel.

4. On-the-Job Training: agents work in a controlled environment under supervision before being allowed on to the floor to work on their own.

5. Language and Culture Training: the program is designed to integrate specific language and cultural differences between Xceed agents and the prospective customer.

The Technology

Xceed was built to accommodate the highest levels of technology in both telecom architecture and the physical facilities provided. The total of 16,000 square meters surface area were spread out over four acoustically engineered stories, accommodating a flexible, modular partition system, which allowed for the reconfiguration of agents' work space, depending on customer requirements. The 20,000 square-meter underground basement hosted the data center, equipment room, and garage. Exhibit 8 gives a descriptive analysis of the technology platform.

The building facade was constructed with double-glazing and a structural-curtain-wall to ensure a high degree of sound insulation, with raised floors and high ceilings throughout the entire building. The central security room was connected to an all-digital CCTV system and an access-card control system was installed throughout the building. The building had been designed to be earthquake resistant. All Xceed front-end servers ran on Windows 2000 with an MS-ISA firewall, MS-Exchange server, and Norton Antivirus and MS-Web servers. The back-end servers ran on Microsoft and UNIX platforms with MS-SQL and Oracle databases, while connected to network-appliance storage units. Xceed LAN was based on AMP cabling and CISCO routers, switches, and an intrusion detection system. Xceed's first line support team included certified professionals in Windows 2000/XP, MS-Office suite 2000/XP/2003, MS-servers including MS-Exchange, MS-ISA, MS-SQL, and MS-Web server, in addition to other communications facilities including hardware, connectivity, facsimile, e-mail, telephony, and networking systems. It is important to note that Xceed collaborated with major vendors including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and Fujitsu Siemens, amongst others for the development and deployment of the ICT infrastructure of the contact center.

Xceed takes security concerns seriously. Consolidated with other vendors security solutions, Microsoft and Cisco capabilities were heavily used to maximize network and data security, including central antivirus protection with automatic updates (servers and workstations), group policy, strict policy for user rights, patch management (SUS and SMS), hardware firewall between all network segments, and IDS systems in all segments. Xceed's entire facility and infrastructure strategy was built to mitigate risk and ensure business continuity. In addition to Xceed's hot site located at El-Shorouk city, which serves as a disaster recovery location, Xceed will continue to deploy this strategy and add more facilities over the next 3 years to ensure comprehensive support for its customers. Xceed's Cairo site was connected through TE carrier with two connection types--Microwave: STM-1 connection terminated at a STM-4 multiplexer that provided 63 E1 links and copper cables: 50 pairs of copper cables connected to Xceed MDF, of which 16 E1 links were provided via HDSL rack termination. Exhibits 9 and 10 are graphical representations of the topology.

Moreover, Xceed contracted with TE to provide optical fiber connectivity while the STM-4 will be upgraded to STM-16. To ensure no traffic congestion would occur (even on the carrier level), ISDN PRI lines were provided by TE tandem exchanges. Both voice and data connectivity links were distributed on the microwave, copper cables, and fiber link to ensure redundancy and no single point of failure. Partnerships with a number of telecommunication providers, including EsatBT, Deutsche Telecom, Cable and Wireless, MCI, and Arcor have been consigned for international connectivity.

The Xceed-Microsoft Partnership

On December 5, 2003, Danish called Refky and El-Shafei into his office. He closed the door and told them that he had big news to share. Danish told them that the Microsoft European operation center in Ireland was looking to outsource a big contact center operation to cover Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The contact center would be responsible for Microsoft product activations. All three had mixed feelings of happiness and fear. As a company, Xceed was still too small to respond to such an extensive request for proposal (RfP), especially that the major contact centers all over the world were participating. However, the challenge seemed interesting and motivating. Their collective final decision was to participate and win the project. Danish told Refky and El-Shafei "you have a free hand, do whatever you want to do, partner with whomever you want to partner with, just win this project."

Refky and El-Shafei left Danish's office with an enormous challenge. After deliberation, they decided to collaborate with Arvato, a large German company that had experience in running the business of contact centers. They thought that by working with Arvato, they had a better chance of winning, especially that they could offer a new low-cost, high quality destination like Xceed. They managed to secure an appointment with Arvato 5 days later. At the same time, negotiations with Merkur Systemhaus AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post Worldnet, had been ongoing since late August 2003, for the development of a strategic alliance between the two organizations. It is important to note that identifying a partner was crucial since the portfolio of 19 languages required by the project was quite large for Xceed to handle on its own. Moreover, Xceed wanted to offer different locations for service provision, in order to ensure ultimate business continuity.

Refky left for Germany after many discussions with El-Shafei, regarding the choice of partner. Refky planned open meetings with both companies: Arvato and Merkur Systemhaus AG. One morning on his trip, as Refky sat in a coffee shop in Gottingen (Germany), he sipped his hot cup of coffee and a million thoughts were going through his mind. Having not slept well the night, he knew that he could not make this decision based only on the rational of calculating the risks and benefits. He needed to follow his business intuition. He picked up the phone, called El-Shafei and told him that he decided not to go to Arvato. He asked him to call for a meeting with Merkur Systemhaus AG the following day. El-Shafei agreed and they planned to inform Danish of their decision and to proceed accordingly. Refky called Danish to explain the reason for the decision. Refky could not find a good justification except that it was a gut feeling and he knew it was the right way to go, building on the previous experiences and track records of both companies.

The following morning, Refky had the meeting with Merkur Systemhaus AG. He explained the business opportunity at hand and that Xceed was interested in having them on board this project. At the end of the meeting, Merkur Systemhaus AG was interested in collaborating with Xceed to respond to the RfP. The next day, a cross-country telephone meeting took place; one team was in a conference room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel, including Refky, three Merkur Systemhaus AG representatives from Germany, and a fourth from a subsidiary of Merkur Systemhaus AG in Ireland. The other team was in a conference room on the third floor of the Xceed premises in Cairo, including El-Shafei and a large team from Xceed. Both teams spent the whole day discussing the project details and the roles and responsibilities of each team. Working teams from the three companies were created, each responsible for separate tasks. The teams planned to work remotely, with the option of face-to-face meetings if needed. A steering committee was formed and they agreed to communicate on a weekly basis, through conference calls. A meeting was planned in Cairo, prior to the submission of the proposal near the end of January 2004.

The teams worked very hard and they felt they were on the right track for a job well done. The proposal was submitted on time. By mid-February, Xceed was informed that they were short-listed, and were invited to present their

proposal at the Microsoft Corporation premises in Ireland. The whole team gathered in Dublin, five Xceed representatives, two Merkur Systemhaus AG representatives from Germany, and one from their subsidiary in Ireland. They rehearsed the presentation, agreed on the scenario, and set the plan. The presentation was perfect and represented just another piece of instrumental teamwork. A week later, Microsoft Corporation informed Xceed that they would like to send out a team to visit the Xceed premises. The visit took place during the period of March 10-11, 2004. During the following month, on April 7, Xceed was invited back to present the proposal to Microsoft's higher management. This meeting was followed by a series of conference calls and discussions to reach the best plan of action and pricing strategy. On April 30, the decision was conveyed to Xceed that they won the biggest portion of the project, the portion that Xceed had primarily promised to deliver in the proposal. The portion to be delivered by Merkur Systemhaus AG was not awarded to them. The Xceed team celebrated their achievement putting forward the bigger challenge of delivering what they promised to deliver. The kickoff meeting was planned in Dublin on May 21, 2004.

The project started with a number of difficulties, however, all team members were completely dedicated. Emphasis had to be put in place by both Refky and El-Shafei to facilitate the communication with Microsoft Corporation, which appeared to make or break the success of this offshoring project. Delays in meeting deadlines by global telecom vendors put more burdens on the project team. The customer service team lacked the experience to deal with a new relationship with a new vendor in a new country, on a big project. A demanding customer like Microsoft Corporation put pressure on the project. Xceed was supposed to go live on the third week of August. This date was not met. Microsoft Corporation asked for a conference call with Xceed's senior management. Refky started the meeting with a full analysis of the situation and the solution proposed by Xceed. Microsoft Corporation felt that Xceed was aware of the problems they faced, and accordingly, both entities put together a concrete plan to deliver the project. An extension of the go live date was granted to Xceed. It is important to note that Xceed's senior management later discovered that the conference call was a go/no go decision.

The project started on the agreed date, full-fledged go live was achieved in a shorter period than promised, and Microsoft Corporation was satisfied with the achievement. The contact center was later inaugurated by Bill Gates in January 2005. Due to the successful performance of the project, Xceed was awarded extra languages to its portfolio near the end of 2005. Exhibit 11 demonstrates an e-mail sent from John Garett, the Microsoft vendor account manager at EOC, to Xceed, on September 9, 2004.

CURRENT CHALLENGES/PROBLEMS FACING THE ORGANIZATION

This case might give the impression that things were on the right track for Xceed. In a way, they were, but the company was facing a number of challenges that had to be addressed in order to maintain the quality of the product they were planning to provide. Contact center performance was measured using the annual uptime percentage. The standards that govern the technology were extremely high, with annual uptime set at 99.9%. This meant that contact centers were only allowed a maximum of 2 hours downtime a year. For that reason, continual investment in ICT was required as well as regular human capital capacity building. The contact center business--and particularly an operation of that magnitude--was relatively new to Egypt. Accordingly, the management team needed to be constantly assured that the technical support of local companies would be sufficient during times of crisis, being identified as one of the critical success factors in the overall performance of the contact center.

Egypt was misrepresented and misperceived in western countries, and contact center customers have low expectations when they were approached by an Egyptian firm. This made it more difficult for Xceed to market its products on the global level. However, the situation differed significantly when customers visited the premises and were in direct contact with the management and contact center agents. Xceed then became a success story. The company represents a successful business model for call centers that have been designed and managed by local capacities in the context of developing nations with world class vision, business intuition, entrepreneurial skills, management capacities, and a committed and competitive human capital. In general, the re-emergence and explosive growth of a thriving information services industry has changed today's information services landscape dramatically and portends even more sustainable changes in the future (Clark, Zmud, & McGray, 1998). Respectively, it is important to note that Xceed plans to have a more active role in the contact center industry in Egypt and the region, with an eye to a global outreach. There are many options available with diversified challenges to overcome and turn into opportunities. Therefore, it is vital for Xceed management to decide where to go from here.

What is Next?

In the meantime, Xceed is considering what it should do next, considering the growing local and global competition in the contact center industry. Xceed's management is faced with a number of challenges that need to be addressed. These challenges are demonstrated in the following questions.

* Based on the information provided in the case, would it be a strategic advantage if Xceed brands and/or franchises its operation?

* Should Xceed continue to perform horizontally its CRM services or would it rather function as a provider to a specific vertical given the growing market outreach?

* Would it be an advantage if Xceed establishes partnerships with large global contact centers?

* Would it be better if Xceed focuses on specialized and more sophisticated customer contact services like technical support or perform the whole spectrum of call center services?

* Should Xceed diversify its services by adding insourcing and/or back office services model?

* Is it feasible if Xceed focuses on consultancy services for the design and development of building call centers?

* In terms of exit strategy, should Xceed seek a buy out by a major global outsourcer?

Xceed's management would be willing to hear alternative suggestions and ideas. One thing that they are focused on and determined to do is to lead continuously the call center industry in Egypt and the region and to expand it way beyond the current status due to the availability of the required building blocks that exist in the nation and more importantly to the potentials the industry has to put Egypt on the global map of contact center outsourcing destinations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Adel Danish, CEO and chairman of Xceed; Ahmed Refky, vice president for strategy and business development; Alaa El-Shafei, vice president for operations, and Ossama Nazmi Hanna, business eevelopment manager, for their continuous support and cooperation throughput the development of this case study.

REFERENCES

Bossone, A. (2006). Seal of approval. Business Today, April, 48-50

Clark, T., Zmud, R., & McGray, G. (1998). The outsourcing of information services: Transforming the nature of business in the information industry. In L. P. Willcocks & M. C. Lacity (Eds.), The strategic sourcing of information systems perspectives and practices (pp. 45-78). Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.

Cronk, J., & Sharp, J. (1998). A framework for IS outsourcing strategy in private and public sector contexts. In L. P. Willcocks & M. C. Lacity (Eds.), The strategic sourcing of information systems perspectives and practices (pp. 163-186). Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.

Datamonitor. (2005, February). Emerging opportunities--offshore outsourcing in Egypt, a growing contact center market looks to build global business. White Paper.

Friedman, T. (2005a, June 3). A race to the top. New York Times

Friedman, T. (2005b, June 8). Bangalore: hot and hotter. New York Times

Gilson, K. A., & Khandelwal, D. K. (2005). Getting more from call centers. Retrieved on April 7, 2007, from www.mckinseyquarterly.com

Kamel, S. (2005a). The evolution of information and communication technology infrastructure. In G. Hunter & A. Wenn (Eds.), Egypt in information systems in an e-world (pp. 117-135). The Information Institute.

Kamel, S. (2005b, May 15-18). Assessing the impacts of establishing an Internet cafe in the context of a developing nation. In Proceedings of the 16th Information Resources Management Association International Conference on Managing Modern Organizations with Information Technology (pp. 176-181). San Diego, California:

Kamel, T. (2006). Egypt reforms: An update from the ICT sector, June

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology-MCIT (2005) Building Digital Bridges: Egypt's Vision of the Information Society

Moheeb, H. (2006, July). Long distance--language and computer skills and geographic proximity are making Egypt a hub for offshore outsourcing. Business Today, July,

Nazif, A. (2004). Government programs, the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. Retrieved on September 28, from www.amcham.org.eg

Pietraszek, W. E., & Ramchandran, A. (2006). Using IT to boost call-center performance. McKinsey on IT, Spring,

Xceed Contact Center (2007). Retreived March 20, 2007, from www.xceedcc.com

Exhibit 8. Technology platform--high availability

The Xceed site holds the data center that is 200 square meters, equipped with a redundant power source, redundant generators, redundant UPS, redundant network backbone, redundant air conditioners, fire suppression system (gaseous system), and highly secure physical access. The system is occupied by the CRM application (E-point) based on N-Tier to reach the maximum availability architecture:

* Back-end tier

** Network appliance cluster storage system

** Redundant SAN network

** Fujitsu Siemens Cluster UNIX servers

** Oracle 9i RAC Database (real application cluster)

* Business logic tier

** Redundant and load balance application server

* Front-end tier

** Redundant and load balance web server farm

* High speed backup system

From a different perspective, the high availability and serviceability introduced can be seen:

Servers

* Servers are connected to intranet through redundant network cards.

* Servers are supplied with redundant power sources "2 DPU in each rack"

* Servers operate as minimum on RAID1 disk structure

Power

* Two power sources

* Two generators for supplying electricity incase of failure

* Two UPS systems to recover any failure

Clustering

* Unix server are clustered for highly serviceability

* Oracle 9i RAC database (Real application Clusters)

* Exchange

Backup

* Storage Tek L80 tape library is designed to provide ultra-reliable backup and recovery for distributed Windows & UNIX environments

* VERITAS NetBackup, a leading enterprise data protection solution, providing centralized tape library control from a single management interface

* NetApp storage for robust and highly available data service for business-critical environments, Vendor adopted NetApp Clustered Failover to store customers data, installed on a pair of NetApp filers.

Storage System

* Cluster failover

Clustered failover ensures data availability by transferring the data service of an unavailable storage to storage in the cluster. The transfer is transparent to end users and applications, and the data service is automatically resumed with no visible interruption to business operation.

* Snapshot

Snapshot creates a virtual read-only copy of a file system. A snapshot copy of the complete Oracle database file system can be taken in less than 5 seconds with no discernible impact on the performance of the E-point application. A similar copy function is executed to a tape library.

* Snaprestore

Snaprestore enables an entire file system to be restored to the status of a specific Snapshot. The Snaprestore takes less than 10 seconds to restore the data that reduce the backup window.

This architecture ensures that the application requests are always serviceable, even in the event of a failure. If the failure occurs in the primary system back-end tier, the production oracle DB (using RAC) protects from host and instance failure, and the load balance in the business logic tier and front-end tier protect from the host failure.

Exhibit 11. John Garett (Microsoft Vendor Account Manager at EOC) e-mail sent to Xceed on September 9, 2004

Well done,

You are now in full live operation, Xceed are taking 100% of calls, we will continue to route 100% of calls to Xceed from now on. We have some contingency still in place in Arvato, we can call on this contingency if the need arises, please contact me immediately if you feel we need to activate the contingency.

Well done to all involved, a lot of very hard and good work has been done to get to this stage. It is a very impressive achievement to get to this stage within thirteen days of switching in the first calls, especially for a brand new vendor. All indicators are green, healthy PSL, very good feedback from live Csat survey, very good feedback in the IVR Csat survey, no negative feedback from customers through the subsidiaries, no negative impact apparent on CPE, all performance reports checked and accurate, excellent analytical and quality in daily performance report, robust telephony solution via IPLC. All you need to do now is to continue with the excellent work you have all done so far.

I am sure you will all be glad that I am returning home on Friday, you will be able to concentrate on your work without me interfering and always asking questions, you might even get home a bit earlier.

Well done and the very best of luck for the future, somebody once described luck as being when " readiness and quality coincides with opportunity", I am not sure who said it but I think it's very true.

Very Best Regards

John

Sherif Kamel, The American University in Cairo, Egypt

Maha Hussein, The American University in Cairo, Egypt

Sherif H. Kamel is an associate professor of MIS and director of the Management Center at The American University in Cairo. He was director of the Regional IT Institute (1992-2001) and training manager of the Information and Decision Support Centre (1998-1992). In 1996, he was a co-founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Cases on Information Technology and the Journal of Information Technology for Development. His research interest include IT transfer to developing countries, electronic business and human resources development. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Information Technology Institute and the Sadat Academy for Management Sciences (Egypt). He is a member of the Executive Council of the Information Resources Management Association (USA). He is an Eisenhower Fellow and a graduate of London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) and The American University in Cairo (Egypt)

Maha Hussein works with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group, based in Cairo (Egypt). Prior to joining the IFC, Hussein was the business development manager of the Management Center at the American University in Cairo from 2003 to 2006. She started her career in 1994 as part of the Regional Information Technology Institute (RITI), a quasi government project, with a mandate to disseminate information technology in Egypt. Her research interest is in the area of information technology for development. Hussein has an MSc in the analysis, design, and management of information systems from London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK. She also holds an MBA in international business from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands and earned her BA in economics from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Exhibit 2. Agent cost analysis: Type of agent and cost per hour U.S. Dollars Canada Hungary India Poland Egypt USA Collections 25.7 16.2 14.6 16.4 15.3 29.7 (Outbound)

Direct response 25.3 15.9 14.4 16.1 14.9 29.2 (Inbound)Telemarketing/ telesales 25.7 16.2 14.6 16.4 15.1 29.7 (Outbound)Voice-based customer care 24.0 14.7 13.3 16.4 14.5 27.0 (inbound/outbound)Multi-media customer care 24.0 14.7 13.3 16.4 14.7 27.0 (inbound/outbound)Technical support/ help desk 26.2 16.5 14.9 16.6 15.5 30.2 (inbound)% US price for voice-based 89% 54% 49% 61% 54% 100% customer care agent (Source: Datamonitor, 2005) Exhibit 3. Offshore outsourced agent positions in Egypt (2004 - 2009)(Source: Datamonitor, 2005) Offshore Outsourced Agent Positions in Egypt (2004-2009) 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 CAGR Agent positions 450 665 965 1,455 2,300 3,775 50.4% (000s)Annual growth 46% 47% 51% 58% 64% Exhibit 4. SWOT Analysis for Xceed Contact Center Strengths Opportunities * Being owned by Telecom Egypt * ITO Consulting* People caliber/ homogeneous * Strategic alliance* Having a strong reference * Arab region market* Work environment * Self service trend adoption* Top management as a support * Government/ aid funds system * Buy out/ Joint venture* Infrastructure * Deregulation of telco sector* Location* Quality culture belief* Government support Weaknesses Threats * Lack of delegation / empowerment * Lack of favorable telco rates in* Low readiness/ time to market the Arab region* Lack of succession plans * Attrition* Misconception of Egypt * Political stability* Telecom Egypt monopoly * Lack of industry data * Currency fluctuation * New entrants with similar value proposition

Exhibit 5. Xceed forecasts for 2006 Revenue Streams % Offshore seats (IB, OB, BO) EGP 5,232,500 42%Local seats (IB, OB) EGP 400,000 3%Existing Accounts Expansions EGP 5,070,000 41%Consulting (Local, Arab region) EGP 1,750,000 14% Total Expected New Business Income EGP 12,452,500 100%Breakdown of Total Income 2006 Existing Business EGP 68,270,000Existing Business Expansions EGP 5,070,000New Business EGP 5,632,500Consulting (Local, Arab region) EGP 1,750,000 Total Income EGP 80,722,500Budget Extrapolation (Type of Service) %Outbound EGP 1,782,500 34%Inbound EGP 3,105,000 59%BO EGP 345,000 7% Total EGP 5,232,500 100% To convert Egyptian Pounds to U.S. Dollars, $1 U.S. = 5.75 LE Breakdown Total Income 2006 Existing Business 85%Existing Business Expansions 6%New Business 7%Consulting (Local, Arab, region) 2% Note: Table made from pie chart. Services--New Business Outbound 34%Inbound 59%BO 7% Note: Table made from pie chart. Exhibit 6. Xceed Forecasts for 2006 Acquired New Business 2006 Seat average monthly income OB U.S.$1,000Seat average monthly income IB U.S.$2,700Seat average monthly income BO U.S.$1,000OB--UK/US/FR U.S.$310,000 34%IB--UK/US/FR U.S.$540,000 59%BO--UK/US/FR U.S.$60,000 7%Total Offshore U.S.$ U.S.$910,000 100%Exchange Rate U.S.$ to EGP 5.75 Total Offshore EGP EGP 5,232,500 Total Local EGP EGP 400,000

Total Acquired New Business EGP 5,632,500 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Offshore seats (IB, OB, BO) OB--UK/U.S./FR 10 10 10 Months live 11 9 7 IB--UK/U.S./FR Months live BO--UK/U.S./FR 10 Months live 6Local seats (IB, OB) IB/OB * XX X X Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Seats RevenuesOffshore seats (IB, OB, BO) OB--UK/U.S./FR Months live 10 10 50 US$310,000 IB--UK/U.S./FR 3 1 Months live 50 50 US$540,000 BO--UK/U.S./FR 4 Months live 10 US$60,000Local seats (IB, OB) IB/OB * X X EGP 400,000 X Projected Accounts To convert Egyptian Pounds to U.S. Dollars, $1 U.S. = 5.75 LE

Source Citation:Kamel, Sherif, and Maha Hussein. "Xceed: pioneering the contact center industry in Egypt." Journal of Cases on Information Technology 10.11 (Jan-March 2008): 67(25). Computer Database. Gale. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 23 Mar. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=CDB>.

Gale Document Number:A172515486