BPO market welcomes regional big-hitter

The Caribbean’s largest homegrown BPO provider is opening the doors on a new facility in Saint Lucia this spring in a landmark investment that will provide hundreds of local jobs and further promote the island as a booming BPO hub. itelbpo Smart Solutions, headquartered in Jamaica, is adding Saint Lucia to its portfolio with a 20,000 sq ft site in Vieux Fort, near Hewanorra Airport. The facility is set to open in April with 30 to 50 employees and will eventually scale up to employ around 700 Saint Lucians over the next few years. 

Invest Saint Lucia, the island’s investment promotion agency which was instrumental in bringing itelbpo to the island, is hoping the major investment will help raise the country’s profile further in the Business Process Outsourcing industry, which is projected to reach US$ 343.2bn by 2025 and is growing by around 7 per cent a year.

Selling Saint Lucia

Founded in Jamaica in 2012, itelbpo is on a growth trajectory. In November, PanJam Investment Ltd and Portland Private Equity each acquired a 15% ownership stake in the company, allowing it to pursue an ambitious strategy that will see itelbpo expand its network of contact centre services by 5,000 new seats in the next five years.

Saint Lucia is a key part of the group’s plans going forward, according to itelbpo Founding Chairman and CEO Yoni Epstein who says: “We want to ensure we are putting capital in the right places. Our big focus for 2020 is on Saint Lucia and Jamaica.”

Already well-established in Jamaica and with centres in the Bahamas, Mexico and the US, Epstein says itelbpo began eyeing Saint Lucia in late 2018 following discussions with Invest Saint Lucia. Having already dipped a toe in the market running a call centre for Sandals in 2007, Epstein was familiar with the island and didn’t need much convincing. “We are familiar with the landscape and we know what the ability is from a workforce perspective. We are very impressed with the quality of the labour. Given its location and our experience, we knew Saint Lucia would be a good opportunity for us.”

Epstein also credits Invest Saint Lucia for its “tenacity” in pushing the country as a good fit for the firm, saying: “They kept making us think about Saint Lucia for when the time was right. They have been great, and have made it very easy.”

The investment agency is currently hard at work retro-fitting the Vieux Fort site to itelbpo’s specifications and, in a particularly innovative move, is installing solar panels onto the roof of the building to help the firm reduce its energy costs. With efforts underway to ready the site, itelbpo is procuring equipment and says everything is on track to meet the 1st April opening date. 

The Caribbean context

When the centre opens this spring, it will operate with a handful of employees but itelbpo expects this number to grow quickly. Epstein says the facility will cater to a range of industries including financial services, telecommunications, tourism and utilities. When it comes to marketing the services available, the itelbpo head wants to take a hands-on approach: “We want to bring down prospective clients to Saint Lucia. Seeing is believing in our industry. Even though we have a strong track record, people like to see the plant up and running. It is a chicken and egg scenario. There is some risk but we are willing to take that risk based on our confidence in Saint Lucia.”

In taking on the Vieux Fort facility, itelbpo also acquired first right of refusal on an adjacent property which it hopes will house the business as it grows. While room to scale up was important for the company, Epstein is quick to point out that itelbpo is pursuing a realistic growth strategy that will never sacrifice quality for quantity.

“Our focus is on quality. In a customer-facing industry, clients are willing to pay for good service. The big players want large-scale projects but we can capitalise on the benefits without the noise and competition of some of the larger markets,” he says. “The Caribbean cannot support what is happening with BPO in the Philippines or India. We have to carve out our own niche.”

And Epstein believes that the Caribbean’s long history of hospitality dovetails neatly with opportunities in the travel space for BPO providers. “Tourism has been the lifeblood of the Caribbean for the last 60 to 70 years and that is a niche we can continue to support. We can certainly stand our ground and provide services for a large chunk of it. I continue to see that growth.”

Community support

With BPO providers such as OJO Labs, Digicel, Ark Teleservices and KM2 already well-established in Saint Lucia, the country’s BPO sector is going from strength to strength but more can be done across the entire region to fully realise the industry’s potential.

For Epstein, one of the main stumbling blocks is education. Particularly given the fast pace of technological change in the sector. He says: “There is a lot of noise as to where technology is going and how we can use it to better equip agents to provide great customer experiences for the end user. That is where the groundwork is going to be. We have a lot of smart people across the region and we can support some of those individuals, which will help build the region’s capability. The government needs to play their part but the private sector also needs to play their part.”

This sense of responsibility is built into itelbpo’s company ethos. The firm has partnered with the University of the West Indies on several initiatives aimed at improving access to training and certification. It’s also focused on environmental education with a programme to reduce the use of single-use plastics. 

Epstein says projects like these will take place in Saint Lucia once the business is established and will be driven primarily by the team on island to ensure that the specific needs of the local community are addressed. In the meantime, he is committed to helping Saint Lucians into the workforce saying: “Our focus is on the amount of jobs we are looking to provide which has a direct impact on the local economy. If someone makes a dollar, it is a multiplier. It contributes to the GDP, it helps the country grow.

“[The Vieux Fort centre] is a very big win for the company but it’s also a very big win for Saint Lucia. It is doing well in BPO and that success is making these projects possible.”