While India and China have been the focal point of much outsourcing success, and scrutiny, in recent years, more and more companies are passing along business a bit closer to home: Israel.
With a solid economy, and a highly educated populace, the middle east nation is snapping up outsourcing jobs from companies looking to save money, while at the same time not sacrificing quality; as often is the case in other parts of the world.
”Right now it’s like a candy store for buyers,” Ken Adler, a partner in the 600 person Law firm of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, which recently sponsored a forum: “Israel: A Unique Opportunity in Outsourcing.”
“The cultural awareness and compatibility compared to outsoaring to India can’t be beat,” Adler told an eclectic mix of entrepreneurs, business executives and diplomats that had gathered in the Midtown offices to discuss the advantage of choosing Israel over other outsourcing destinations.
In fact, Israel is so quickly becoming the latest hot spot for offshore outsourcing, it has is now considered a leading ATI: Alternative to India.
Yair Shiran, Israel Economic Minister to North America noted during the session that the “economic logic” of choosing Israel has become apparent across many sectors. He cited, among other factors, a strong economy that has grown 5 percent a year since 2003, and in 2006 saw $25 billion in foreign investment pumped into the country. Shiran also noted Warren Buffet recently invested $4.5 billion in a company located in Northern Israel, and Hewlett Packard had invested $4 billion in the country.
“It is a clear demonstration of confidence in Israel,” said Shiran, who also noted inflation had remained a steady zero to three percent over the past three years. Other key economic factors are an economic growth rate of 7.9 percent and a surplus in the country’s trade balance, said Shiran. “The economic logic of outsourcing to Israel makes sense in many ways,” he added.
“Israel is a country of immigrants and that means a very high concentration of foreign language speakers at the native level,” said Shiran, referring to a particular popular reason businesses are looking to Israel. “This isn’t the case in other places. This is a western country with western standards of business.”
One firm finding success inside Israel is IDT Global Services, a provider of multi-lingual, turn-key contact management services, offering around-the-clock, inbound / outbound, multimedia, legal and financial services. The New Jersey-based company has a call center in and Jerusalem where it delivers multi-channel services over the IDT broadband network.
IDT Global helps maximize the value of our clients' customer relationships by communicating with their customers, resulting in enhanced and meaningful business interactions and increased profits.
James Courter, IDT’s chief executive officer, also noted Israel’s language advantage saying: “Israel is very unique as we really don’t have any langue or cultural concerns, unlike other countries.”
Courter said IDT’s call center operation is “very responsive” and engaged, with capabilities of having20 plus different native languages. The operation can result for companies a 35 percent difference in costs structures from similar operations within the United States. “That’s the biggest difference,” he said. “That and quality.”
Courter said IDT has well-educated workforce with over 75 percent of its agents are university graduates with real-world business experience in diverse fields. In addition, the ability to field teams of agents who are experienced in our clients' markets.
Darrell Rodenbaugh, senior vice president of global marketing for MacAfee, says his company found success in working with IDT through establishing a call center that can handle the complex technology geared needs the Internet security company demands.
IDT currently manages outbound calls for to new potential customers (medium-sized businesses) on behalf of McAfee, a leading company specializing in anti-virus software, and call existing customers for the renewal of existing McAfee products and licenses. Responsibilities include ongoing management of accounts of medium-sized businesses in the US and Europe.
”What I see isn’t simple stuff,” said Rodenbaugh, noting McAfee’s business in the region is a $300 million a year operation. ‘What they do isn’t easy.”
Rodenbaugh said his management philosophy regarding the outsourcing project is to treat the employees at the call center as if they were his own, with the same expectations as McAfee’s stateside employees.
“IDT has made that easy for me,” he said. ‘We want to make a lot of money of each other.”
“When you need a crime fighter turn to Israel,” he added.
Tim Gray is a Web Editor for ContactCenterSolutions, covering news in the IP
communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To see more of his articles, please visit Tim Gray’s columnist page.
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