Executive Summary

Call Centres represent a new industrial model driven by advances in Information and
communications technologies that are now ubinguitous. Call Centre technologies
facilitate the automation of customer care services through interactive voice
recognition units, standardized customer transactions through skill-based routing,
create machine-paced operations through automated call distribution systems, and
routinize work through widespread use of scripting and electronic monitoring.

The main cost drivers for any call centre bureau remain technology,
telecommunication (connectivity) and human resources (Call Agents salaries, training,
and supervision expense).

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Table of Contents

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 1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of Document

The purpose of this document is to evaluate the feasibility for setting up a total call
centre solution in terms of the Technology, Processes, and People resources.

1.2 Target Audience

This document is private and confidential and its distribution shall be restricted.
Pursuant to confidentiality rules and conditions, the following stakeholders shall have
access to this document:

1. The promoters of eloquent Solutions Limited

2. The Business Partners of eloquent Solutions Limited
3. Providers of Capital for eloquent Solutions Limited
4. Prospective Clients of eloquent Solutions Limited

1.3 Background note

The call centre industry is undergoing enormous growth globally. In developed

countries, this growth trend started way back in 1990s whereas the African region is
just starting to experience call centre proliferations. The growth has occurred as many
service providers are now seeking to lower the cost of providing services while
increasing the time period access is available. It also reflects the desire of companies
to improve access to their services, in a cost-effective manner, and retain satisfied
customers and increase customer royalty. Technological advances in areas of
Customer Relationship Management, telemarketing for product offerings, telebanking,
direct marketing, home shopping, and mobile telephony services have significantly
influenced the emergence of Call Centre Services as completely new lines of Business.

Call centres have now permeated everyday life and become increasingly difficult to
avoid in many parts of the world. Many Business Enterprises now conduct standard
business via call centres. Examples of this are telephony service providers, banking,
subscription Television providers, insurance, and travel, taxi, and airline companies, in
addition to utilities such as gas, electricity and water. In this context, these service
encounters are conducted by virtual organisations that could be located anywhere in
the world. The call centre does not exist for the customer to interact with apart from
via the telephone, which allows the service to be delivered from anywhere in the
world. The development of technology, of which call centres are a by product, has
forced companies to revisit the ways in which they manage relationships with their
customer base. Many organisations have been innovative in the method of service
delivery, for example banking via telephone or internet. Call centres provide
companies with valuable information about the performance of their goods and
services. They allow the organisation to learn how the customer felt or how the
employee thought the customer felt.

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 1.4 A Call Centre is …………………………

In simple terms a Call Centre is a physical or virtual operation within an organization in

which a managed group of people spend most of their time doing business by
telephone, usually working in a computer – automated environment. To expound
further, a Call Centre is a physical or virtual location where calls are placed, or
received, in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service,
telemarketing, technical support or other specialized business activity. Examples
include reservation centres, catalog retailers, help desks, telemarketers and
fundraisers. Call centers are generally set up as large rooms, with workstations that
include a computer, a telephone set (or headset) hooked into a large telecom switch
and one or more supervisor stations.

At a minimum, then, a call centre is a facility where customer-service representatives

handle high-volume phone traffic, whether inbound or outbound, using sophisticated
telephone and computer technology. Call centres typically serve external customers by
answering questions, taking orders, responding to billing concerns, or pitching
products and services through telemarketing.

1.5 The Call Centre of today

Call centres are a relatively new phenomenon. More than 40 years ago when
customers had questions or concerns about a product or service, they would usually
call the company and ask to speak to a representative. The operator would patch the
caller through to an employee in customer service, who usually worked at a desk
outfitted with a phone, some reference materials, a notepad, and a pen or pencil. If
the rep could answer the customer’s question, she would. More often than not,
however, she didn’t have all the information. She would explain that she needed to
research the issue and ask the caller to leave a name and number. The customer-
service representative (CSR) or call centre agent would then begin the time-consuming
process of rifling through file cabinets and paper records looking for an answer. But
such an operation was hardly efficient. It took lots of agents and lots of time. As the
Volume of calls increased, companies either added more desks, phones, and reps or
took longer to get back to their callers. Life was slower then, and customers were
more patient.

Since then, the pace of business has accelerated from the speed of sound to the speed
of light. The current generation of consumers—the Net generation—would never put up
with, “I’ll get back to you in a couple of days.” Today’s customers want answers now.

Call centres originally conceived as a separate and individual distribution channel of

customer care system has been transformed into integrated customer management
system. With the enabling of integration of call centre and Internet technology, call
centres of today are capable of handling telephone, fax, web, internet and interactive
TV enquiries on a 24x7 basis. These combined Internet Call Centres or ‘Customer
Contact Centres' have significantly impacted the present call centre designs.

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 1.6 Strategy and Objectives

Seeking to cut costs in today's sluggish economy globally, many companies are now
embracing the techniques of BPO (business process outsourcing). Starting with call
centres and other CRM services, companies are either setting up their own BPO
centres or outsourcing to a growing number of BPO providers a wide variety of internal
processes, ranging from finance and accounting to human resources functions such as
payroll management, and transaction processing.

1.6.1 What a Call Centre can do for an Organization

The benefits accruing from total call centre solutions are enormous.
It allows a wider customer base to do business with.
It offers an economical means of reaching diverse and widely distributed
customer group.
It fine tunes offerings to specific customer groups.
It allows customers easy access to experts.
It facilitates business round the clock and in any geography.
It allows a company to avoid the overheads of brick and mortar branches.
The call centre is one way of offering good affordable and quality customer
service to any company with a good customer base.

1.6.2 The Vision

Our vision is to offer total BPO solutions to our clients focusing on total Call Centre
solutions by investing in state-of–art technologies that will give us the ability to
respond to the varying needs of our clients. The underlying goal is to facilitate
customers and client interaction through instant routing of customers enquiries to the
best agents, reduced holding times for customers, more efficient scheduling of
employees, and optimized call reporting.

1.6.3 Strategy

Our strategy is to setup a BPO bureau that will offer our clients the flexibility required
to achieve their CRM goals. Our strategic focus is service differentiation and our
primary customer interaction will involve agents providing either service only or
service and sales.

We will provide a flexible work structure for our highly trained call agents, floor
supervisors and managers that will enable a small amount of discretion in the work
they perform and also being able to have some little influence over the tasks they
perform, the pace of their work, timing their breaks or revising work methods. This

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model work structure will create a more responsive work environment as opposed to
the rigid and scripted work methods commonly found in the Indian Call Centres.

Our menu of services shall include blended solutions similar to the following:

Set-up outsourcing – Enabling our clients to use our services in the early
stages of the call centre life cycle with the intention of later bringing the
process in-house
Transitional Outsourcing - Enabling our clients use our services during
the period of unavailability of their in-house services.
Overflow outsourcing - Enabling our clients to use our services when the
demand on their own call for ‘out of hour' demand.
One-off – Enabling our clients to use our services for one-off advertising
campaigns such direct response advertising which requires a call centre on
a one-off, short-term basis rather than investing in new technologies,
especially for limited period campaigns. Examples of such requirements
would be marketing campaigns, special issues such as recalls, or anything
which generates spikes and large call volumes.
Long term outsourcing – Enabling our clients to outsource their entire CRM
operations

1.6.3 Key Success Factors

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 1.6.4 Potential Customers

Potential Customer industries for our call centre solutions are essentially those
industries within the region which require customer interface and transactions success
is based entirely on in formation availability. These industries include:
Telecom services providers
Utility organisations such as Water and Sewerage Service provider,
Electricity and Energy,
Subscription TV providers
Gambling Companies
Banks / Insurance / Financial Services
IT Companies
Public Directory Service Providers
Tele-Marketing Companies
Companies providing customized and high value services
Airlines
Tourism & Hotels
Other services industries

Within the East African region, there is a handful of call centre [less than 30] operating
as BPO providers, with Kenya taking the lion’s share of the market. The Market size is
expected to grow by about 30% by the year 2009 when the data telecommunication
hindrances become neutralized upon launching of the submarine optical fibre cable
along the India Ocean coastline. Bandwidth limitation still remains the main bottleneck
to the proliferation of BPO call centre within the region.

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 2 The Market (Cost of Doing Business)

Market opportunities exist in the East African region for total Call Centre Solutions and
for the general Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Organisations are now seeking
new techniques/solutions that will help them enhance profitability through customer
retention, customer royalty, and reduced costs of production. The East African region
especially the Ugandan market has in the recent years experienced technological
advancements in especially the areas of service delivery and general client relationship
management. People now expect faster and efficient service delivery in almost all
spheres of society.

The Ugandan Government has recently announced and started implementing policies
that give development priorities to the Information Technology and Telecommunication
sectors. Many Government parastatals and autonomous public institutions as well as
the private sector, and non-governmental organizations are undergoing structural IT
restructuring metamorphosis which has seen these organizations invest heavily in ICT,
overhauling of their IT infrastructure, seeking for newer IT solutions that integrate well
with their legacy systems. Utility companies such as Electricity, energy, and water
have computerised most of their front-end operations and customers can now reach
their help-desks through widely publicised hotlines. Commercial Banks have also
computerised most of their client-end business processes and their ATM networks now
cover a wider customer base.

Call centre opportunities exist from especially enterprises that have widely distributed
customer base. Examples of these enterprises include:

 Utility organisations such as Water and Sewerage Service provider,

Electricity and Energy,
 Telephony service providers
 Subscription TV providers
 Gambling Companies
 Banking Institutions
 IT Support Service Providers
 Public Directory Service Providers
 Tele-Marketing Companies
 etc

The cost of doing business in Uganda is still high. The tax system in Uganda is highly
inelastic with much of the tax revenue being earned from discretionary tax measures.
Also equity in taxation is still non existent thus the tax burden is unduly shifted to
companies and workers in the formal sector. Communication costs are also still very
high compared to neighbouring countries. The high cost of doing business is attributed
to the following:

 Insufficient Power Supply

 Volatile International Oil prices and High landed cost for Petroleum
products resulting from high freight costs
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  Limited capacities of public institutions
 High telecommunication costs
 Corruption in public institutions

2.1 The Telecommunications Infrastructure, Technology

Uganda is perceived as a high cost business environment in terms of call centre

technology, telecommunication infrastructure, and internet connectivity. These issues
are being addressed by the government as a matter of priority.

The Ugandan Market currently relies heavily on satellites for (international) data
(internet) telecommunications connectivity with the rest of the world, and this
technology is much more expensive than the alternative fibre optic cable data
transmission. In the recent past some telecom operators have laid fibre optic cables
around the Central Business District of Kampala City, and can now provide leased line
internet connectivity. Satellite data telecommunication is quite expensive and is
characterized by high latency compared to optical fibre cable.

The Government of Uganda with the assistance of the Peoples Republic Of China is
laying a National Data Transmission Backbone optical fibre cable to inter-connect all
the districts in Uganda by mid 2008 and subsequently link to the submarine optical
fibre cable, which is being laid along the Indian Ocean on the East African coastline
and completion is expected sometime around end of 2008 or early 2009. If all goes
according to plan, our bandwidth will increase significantly and the cost of data
telecommunication will reduce dramatically. These are the biggest impediments to
business process outsourcing solutions in the region.

The US$ 2 billion undersea fibre optic cable project, which is co-funded by the Eastern
and Southern African Governments and NEPAD, is to deliver the following benefits
upon completion:

Reduce payments to foreign satellite facility providers

Provide more profitability for telecom entities thus enhancing the chance of
successful privatization
Reduce unit costs for global connectivity leading to increased profits, and
lower tariffs and charges for the end users
Help Africa compete in the global market
Bring the power of high speed, high bandwidth connectivity to Africa
Enable new services and products not possible hitherto due to bandwidth
restrictions

It is estimated that the cable will reduce connectivity costs in Eastern and Southern
Africa by more than 50 percent once it becomes operational.

On the international scene, there are remarkable positive trends in the call centre
technology and especially in the area of call routing and distribution. Some of these
trends will continue, and include the following:

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 Shift from proprietary to open architectural platforms is rapidly gaining
acceptance as is exemplified by vendors' frequent introductions of PC-based
routing and call management software.
A shift toward the "complete package" or "turnkey" solution is boosted by
this trend to open platforms which allows for easier integration with existing
systems. The growth in turnkey solutions is also driven by a high level of
customer demand.
In addition to the formal call centre setup, demand for this industry-
standards based, open architecture is seen by those types of call centres
operating in more "non-traditional" environments. For example: virtual call
centers, telecommuting, etc.
Price decline for products perceived as commodities (due to level of
technology and knowledge sharing).

Besides the above developments, call centre technologies are making a rapid shift
from mere stringing together of boxes and wires to, more intelligent and manageable
solution. For example, extremely competitive and technologically advanced call centre
solutions based entirely on PC technologies and platforms, and IP technologies have
been developed and are being used in many Indian BPO call centres. The cost of call
centre solutions has therefore reduced significantly.

2.1.1 Internet Telecom Providers & Telecom Tariffs

Currently there are over 10 Internet Service Providers operating in Uganda of which
only 4 ISPs have the capacity to provide leased line broadband connectivity of up to
2mbps or bandwidth of up to 500mb. The table bellow list the current ISP in Uganda
as licensed by the UCC:

Table 1: Some of the ISPs in Uganda

Item Internet Service Providers Contact Details

Africa Online 5th Floor–Commercial Plaza, Plot 7 Kampala Road, P. 0. Box
29331 Kampala Uganda, Tel: +25641258143, +256312211200
Fax: +25641258144
Email: info@africaonline.co.ug, Website: www.africaonline.co.ug
2 Afsat Communications (u) Limited Ground Floor (shopping Arcade), Communications House, P. O.
Box. 25745 Tel: +256 41 343780, +256 41 343969,
+25641343591, Fax: +25641343334
Email: afsatug@afsat.com, Website: www.afsat.com,
www.afsat.ug, www.iwayafrica.com
3 Anupam Global Soft (u) Limited Plot M567, Banda Industrial Area, Jinja Road, P. 0. Box. 70881,
Kampala Uganda Tel: 25641288479/ 0712520111, Website:
www.anupam.co.ug
4 Bukasa Telecom Limited Off Martyrs Way, Ntinda Road, P. 0. Box. 22995, Kampala,
Uganda Tel: 256772712113, Fax: 256312279154
5 Bushnet Limited Plot 1000 Baka close, Tank Hill- Muyenga, P. 0. Box 22849,
Kampala Uganda Tel: +256312225200, Fax: +25641225203,
Cell: +256752711622
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 Item Internet Service Providers Contact Details
6 Dehezi International Limited Dehezi Comlex near Former Kiseka Hospital, P. 0. Box 16186,
Kampala Tel: +25641259211, Fax: +25641236395, Website:
www.dehezi.net
7 Digital Lifestyle 2nd Floor Suite 01, Subset Arcade, P. 0. Box 16059, Kampala-
Uganda Tel: +25641253905/0772409086
8 Infocom Plot 40, Wampewo Avenue, Celtel House, P. O. Box 8373,
Kampala-Uganda Tel: +25641342681, Fax: +24641342192
Email: sales@infocom.co.ug, Website: www.infocom.co.ug
9 Kampala Siti Cable Limited Rashid Khamis Road Old Kampala, P. 0. Box. 24547, Kampala –
Uganda Tel: 04134209/0712220121, Fax: 041344466
10 Kanodiko Systems Ltd People’s plaza William street, Nebbi Park, Shop No. 5, Kampala
Uganda Tel: 256782602885/8, Tel: 256782632293, Website:
www.kanodiko.com
11 Latest Technology International Nsambya Near Sharing Hall, P. 0. Box. 9513, Kampala Uganda
Limited Tel: 25677/75-436561, Fax: 25641255008, Email:
ikntambi@iti.co.ug
12 MTN (U) Limited MTN Towers, 22 Hannington Road, P. 0. Box 24624, Kampala
Uganda Tel:+256312212333, Fax:+256312341976, Email:
mtn@mtn.co.ug , Website: www.mtn.co.ug
13 Multichoice Uganda Limited 95 Buganda Road, P. 0. Box 2373, Kampala-Uganda, Tel:
+256312245245/+25641330000, Fax: +25641235762,
Email:mcuganda@uganda.multichoice.co.za, Website:
www.dstv.com
14 One2net 7th Floor, Northern Wing, Workers house, P. 0. Box 26411,
Kampala-Uganda Tel: +256 41 345466, +256 31 2260495, Fax:
+25641345468
Email: info@one2net.co.ug , Web: www.one2net.co.ug
15 Uganda Telecom Limited Rwenzori Courts, P. 0. Box 7171, Kampala Uganda, Tel:
+25641333200 Fax: + 25641346870, Email:
info@utlonline.co.ug , Website: www.utl.co.ug
Source: UCC

Table 2: Tariff Structure for selected ISPs (USD)

Item ISP Upto Upto Upto

512kbps 1mbps 2mbps
1 Uganda Telecom Limited 2,600*
2 MTN Uganda Limited 2,770* 5,375* 10,360*

3 Infocom Uganda Limited 3,100

4 Africa Online Uganda Limited 7,856** 7,520
5 Afsat Communications Uganda Limited 2,500*** 10,688** 21,376**

Source: UCC
* Leased line solutions, excluding leased line monthly charges
** Dedicated VSAT solutions, excluding installation charges
*** Shared VSAT Solutions
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2.2 Market Size and Competition

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 4 Products and Services


eloquent is a total Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Bureau with primary focus on
customer call/contact centres dedicated to providing high quality service value to our clients.

4.1 Core Services

In all our services that we offer to our clients, our primary focus is to absolute customer care
experience that our customers will not find anywhere else. We do that through providing
professional call centre and customer service facilitation and being dedicated to
communicating and listening to all customers and provide lasting and satisfying solutions on
behalf of our clients. Our core services include the following:

INBOUND

Core Call Centre Services

Customer Service Helpline
Technical and HelpDesk Services
Customer Care and Complaint Handling Services
Order processing, booking or reservation services
IT Product Support Services
Data Entry, verification and Analysis
Management of Telephone Voting ( voice, text/image, etc)

OUTBOUND

Telemarketing
Management of Customer Loyalty programs
Telephone Directory Services
Personnel Vetting Services

Value Added Services

We do not only provide just call centre solutions, the following value-added services are also
available as part of our overall customer service implementation:

Telemarketing
Call Centre IT and total CRM solutions
Customer Service Training Services
General Customer Care Training
Linguistic Training services
Accent Training Services
Cellular Support Services
Accounting Services
General IT related services

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 5 Setting up a Call Centre

5.1 Implementation Model

Establishment of a call centre needs efficient integration and management of telecom and IT
infrastructure, human resources, and work processes.

Hosted Vs. On Premises Solution

There exist two implementation models for call centre solutions:

On-the-premises Implementation Model

Hosted (on-demand, or Application Service Provider ) implementation Model

Under the on-the-premises model, a call centre bureau runs the call centre software solutions
in its premises and on its IT infrastructure. However, for hosted solution model, the call
centre software solution provider runs the software in their premises and on their IT
infrastructure and link to your agents via a broadband internet connection.

In hosted solutions, the application is set on the ASP dealer’s servers and almost all of the
processing is performed there. All calls are brought via the internet to your agents’ desktops
through VoIP. The principal benefit of hosted call centre solutions is how simply it is to start.
With the help of a hosted service, you are able to get admission to enterprise-level
characteristics even if you have just a few agents. You may get more agents at any time with
only a telephone call, and as an alternative to a tremendous capital investment, you will pay a
much more sensible bill.

Hosted call centre solutions have made a huge technological progress within the latest years
and so the ASP model has become extremely admired for its technical and administrative
advantages.

The easiest way for small star-ups is to go for the on-demand ASP model with the following
justification:

Reduced start-up capital outlays such as hardware and deployment costs, servers,
ICT security, and technical consultancy costs.
The call centre can get up and running in mere days thus avoiding project
implementation and management costs.
Gain immediate access to software functionality and IT-support resources without
having to hire costly consultants or systems integrators.
Flexibility of adding or removing agents

On the contrary, on-the-premises model involves a significant investment in servers and

personnel and will require a little bit of IT expertise in order to uphold and renew the system.
A great lump sum has to be paid to purchase and install the system, together with software
and servers, and, as a rule, a small yearly charge for admission to upgrades and client
support.

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However, for indeed large call centres (say of about 5,000 seats) with high growth revenue
projections, an on-the-premises solution would be much more feasible. Vendors of technology
for call centres usually highlight the following benefits for on-the-premise model:

Owning the technology after the amortization period is complete with very little cost
to maintain and operate,
Available tax breaks for depreciation, and
Controlling the reliability of on-site technology vs. depending on the reliability of a
hosted server for solutions accessed over the Internet.

5.1.1 Use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)

Central to the ASP implementation model is the use of VoIP, where the conversations
between the call centre agents and the customer takes place over an IP network. Under VoIP
the voice traffic is transferred using the internet protocol (IP). VoIP enables the integration of
voice, data and additional types of content, such as video and fax, over one IP infrastructure.
The use of a converged IP environment shall offer the following capabilities to our call centre
bureau:

Multiple Contact Mode Capabilities – An IP Contact Centre makes it far easier to

enable agents for additional contact modes to voice, such as e-mail, fax, instant
messaging, Web-collaboration and SMS text.
Increased Computer and Desktop Integration –Computer Telephony Integration
(CTI) can now include the integration of IP Telephones with CRM or other
applications on the desktop and permit what previously multiple interfaces (instant
messaging application, call control application) to be integrated on the agent’s
desktop.
Reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs – one wire not many means less
physical materials and more importantly one maintenance agreement for both voice
and data.
Closer linkage of other channels to Contact Centre – IP permits agents sitting
in another branch to act as overflow capacity for the contact centre. Equally it allows
the branch to link more closely and cheaply to contact centre agents.
Reduced voice call costs – rather than having calls routed on the PSTN
network (with long distance charges), VoIP allows users to pay by bandwidth,
regardless of call distance. In contact centre this permits load balancing and
transfers as easily between distant locations as within the contact centre IP
Convergence is bringing about fundamental changes. It is making the contact centre
a much more integrated part of the enterprise and allows the contact centres’
capabilities to be distributed more widely at less cost.

On-Demand (Hosted) Solution – The numbers!

For SMEs start-ups in the call centre industry, a hosted (on-demand) implementation model is
strongly recommended due to a multitude of financial, technical and operational reasons
already addressed in the previous sections. The most outstanding of all is the ability to start
quickly without huge initial capital investments in hardware and software infrastructure that

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 will become obsolete in a short time. In a hosted solution model, it’s the role of an ASP to
manage background processes and stay abreast of technology trends.

The costing below is based on the following:

Enabling minimal delay between customer answer and agent connect

Providing solid, stable hardware and software to keep us running 24/7
Modern features like screen phone, call transfer, call recording and monitoring, real-time
statistics/reporting, predictive dialling, call queuing, etc.
A modern and simple graphical user interface enabling naming and photo display,
screen-pop-ups, scheduling, staff assignment, call distribution, queue messages etc.
Multiple workstation modes enabling segregation of duties for Agents, Supervisors, and
administrators.

Here below is the cost implication for a hosted (on-demand) solution in the first five years,
analysed in terms of the following call centre cost drivers:

Software Costs
Hardware Costs
Implementation Costs ( setup costs )
Ongoing Expenditures (Maintenance, upgrades etc.)
Subscription Costs for Hosted Solutions ( rental )
Seat Monitoring Charges
IT Staff Costs

Table3: Cost Analysis for Hosted Solution depending on number of Seats (US $)

Period Projection Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5

Unit cost/Seat CPS 25 CPS 60 CPS 100 CPS 150 CPS 200
Software Costs - - - - - - - - - -
Hardware Costs - - - - - - - - - -
Setup costs 100 2,500 100 3,500 60 2,400 60 3,000 50 2,500
Maintenance - - - - - - - - - -
Subscription Costs 200 60,000 160 115,200 160 192,000 120 216,000 120 288,000
Seat Monitoring 50 15,000 30 21,600 30 36,000 30 54,000 30 72,000
TollFree Number(1,2) 100 1,200 80 1,920 80 1,920 50 1,200 50 1,200
IT Staff Costs - - - - -
Total 450 78,700 370 142,220 330 232,320 260 274,200 250 363,700
Monthly ASP Costs 8,850 15,060 21,560 25,600 32,600
Monthly ASP Costs per Seat 354 251 216 171 163

Legend: CPS = Cost per Seat

5.2 Implementation Strategy

5.2.1 Forming a Joint Venture

In a bid to leverage on the initial setup costs especially in the key areas of technology and

telecommunication infrastructure, eloquent management will seek partnership with a local
telecom provider, and a joint venture arrangement with an international call centre

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technology solutions vendor. Borrowing from the Indian and Kenyan experience, several call
centres in these countries are the result of a joint venture between an international player
and a local business group. Through such arrangements we expect to leverage our partners’
existing IT and telecom infrastructure, such as Call Centre management IT solutions, fiber
optic network, and the like.

5.2.1.1 Candidates for Joint-Venture-ship

On the International front, we have already established a working relationship with one of the
leading contact centre IT solutions for outbound, inbound, and blended communications, with
over 23 years of industry experience:

TourchStar International

TouchStar is a complete contact centre solution for outbound, inbound, and blended
communications, which deliver robust features, reliability, and scalability. TouchStar has over
23 years opf industry experience, with over 2,500 Clients corporate clients using its call
centre solutions. TourchStar, which acquired Digisoft in 2005 and Sigmaworx/ETS in 2006
now has regional offices in Mumbai- India, Manila – Phillipines, Manchester – UK, Davenport –
(xxxx), New York – USA, Pune – India, and its headquarters in Denver – USA.

ToucrchStar, India is already giving us technical support on the process of setting up

operations, here in Uganda and we expect more support in the areas of Technology mix, Call
Agent training, and many other call centre operations dynamics.

MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom

MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom are the leading providers of Leased Line Data
Telecommunications services, and their fibre optic network is growing rapidly around major
towns in the country. These companies also enjoy the biggest customer base and network
coverage. We will consider forming a joint venture with either of the two companies in order
to leverage their Internet connectivity and fibre optic network infrastructure.

We however take cognizant of the challenges that exist in forging a joint venture with these
companies and also the difficulties that will manifest in keeping the joint venture-ship
running. We will engage a consultant to manage this process.

5.2.2 Financial Considerations

This section focuses on the cost comparisons for between the hosted model and the on-premise
implementation model. In both models the costing is based on a modern call centre with advanced
equipment and software solutions.

5.2.2.1 Start-up and Operating Costs

Estimates are made for the following key drivers for establishing a call centre facility:

Facility Costs (Floor Design, Setup, Utilities)

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 Software Costs
Hardware Costs ( Agent Equipment, Telecom facility, and Connectivity Components)
Implementation Costs ( setup costs )
Ongoing Expenditures (Maintenance, upgrades etc.)
Subscription Costs for Hosted Solutions ( rental )
Seat Monitoring Charges
Toll free number charges
IT Staff Costs

Detailed cost estimates and projections for the first five years together with any notes and
assumptions are given in Table 4 below.

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Table 4: Cost projections for a Hosted Solution Call Centre (US $)
Period Projection Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5
Agent Seats 25 60 100 150 200
Unit Unit Unit
Costing Unit Cost Month Annual Cost Annual Cost Annual Cost Annual Unit Cost Annual

Establishement Costs

Floor Design and Setup

Furniture - Agents Work Stations 300 7,500 7,500 300 10,500 200 8,000 200 10,000 200 10,000
Network Setup:
LAN Cabling, Switches, Routers,FireWall 3,000 3,000 5,000 -
Air Conditioning 1,500 1,500 3,000
Alternative Power Supply (UPS) 1,000 1,000 2,000
Painting and Branding 2,000 2,000 5,000

Design and Setup 15,000 15,000 10,500 21,000 12,000 10,000

Agent Equipment
Desktop Analog Headsets (BH-09TB) 80 2,000 2,000 80 2,800 50 2,000 50 2,500 50 2,500
Desktop Analog Dialpad ( DA-202) 100 2,500 2,500 100 3,500 80 3,200 80 4,000 80 4,000
Desktop Personal Computers 800 20,000 20,000 600 21,000 600 24,000 500 25,000 500 25,000

Agent Station 24,500 24,500 27,300 29,200 31,500 31,500

VoIP Connectivity
Analog VoIP Gateway (24+ Ports) 2,500 2,500 3,500 5,000 5,000 8,000
Telecom Setup 500 500 - - 1,000 -
ASP Setup Charges 100 2,500 2,500 100 3,500 60 2,400 60 3,000 50 2,500

Connectivity 5,500 5,500 7,000 7,400 9,000 10,500

Total Establishment Costs
45,000 45,000 44,800 57,600 52,500 52,000

Operating Costs

ASP Charges
Rental Fees 200 5,000 60,000 160 115,200 160 192,000 120 216,000 120 288,000
Seat Monitoring 50 1,250 15,000 30 21,600 30 36,000 30 54,000 30 72,000
TollFree Number(1, 2 numbers) 100 100 1,200 80 1,920 80 1,920 50 1,200 50 1,200

ASP Costs 350 6,350 76,200 270 138,720 229,920 271,200 361,200

Telecommunication
Leased Line Rental 100 1,200 100 1,200 80 960 50 600 50 600
BandWidth ( atleast 512kbps) 3,000 36,000 3,600 43,200 2,930 35,160 5,859 70,308 5,859 70,308
TollFree Charges ( Long Distance Calls) 44 528 120 1,440 400 4,800 960 11,520 1,280 15,360
Maintenance 100 1,200 100 1,200 250 3,000 300 3,600 300 3,600

ASP Costs 3,244 38,928 47,040 43,920 86,028 89,868

Labour Costs
Agent Wages & Salaries 200 5,000 60,000 250 180,000 250 300,000 250 450,000 250 600,000
Supervisors Salaries ( 1,1,2,2,3) 300 300 3,600 300 3,600 300 7,200 300 7,200 300 10,800
Manager's Salaries (1,1,1,1,2) 500 500 6,000 500 6,000 500 6,000 500 6,000 500 12,000
IT Support Staff 350 350 4,200 350 4,200 350 4,200 350 4,200 350 4,200
Total Labor Costs 6,150 73,800 193,800 317,400 467,400 627,000

Training
Training ( Agents, Sup., Managers) 2,000 2,000 2,000 3,500 5,000 5,000

Total Training 2,000 2,000 2,000 3,500 5,000 5,000

Facility Cost ( Rental)

2 80 2 80 100 M2 100 100 M2 100 150 M2 150
Square Footage : 80 M 80 M
atleast 80Sq.Metres (80,100,150) 15 1,200 14,400 18 17,280 20 24,000 20 24,000 25 45,000
Electricity & Water 100 1,200 100 1,200 120 1,440 120 1,440 120 1,440

Total Facility Costs 1,300 15,600 18,480 25,440 25,440 46,440

Marketing, Branding, Supplies

Marketing and Branding Costs 3,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 20,000 20,000
Office Supplies 400 4,800 500 6,000 500 6,000 1,000 12,000 1,000 12,000

Total Marketing and Others 3,400 14,800 21,000 26,000 32,000 32,000
Total Operating Costs
22,444 221,328 421,040 646,180 887,068 1,161,508

Total Costs 67,444 266,328 465,840 703,780 939,568 1,213,508

Monthly Operating Costs
18,444 35,087 53,848 73,922 96,792
Monthly ASP Cost
8,850 15,060 21,560 25,600 32,600
Monthly ASP Cost per Seat 354 251 216 171 163

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 5.2.2.1.1 Notes and Assumptions

a Facility Costs

This expense includes all costs incurred in setting up and maintenance of the call centre facility,
such as Floor Furniture and fittings, LAN cabling, routers, switches, Air conditioning, painting
and branding, utilities costs ( Water and Electricity), and office space rentals. The following
assumptions have been made with respect to this expense:

Each Agent Work Station Furniture will cost US $ 300 during the first two years and US $
200 in the subsequent years.
About 80 Square Metres of Floor space will be sufficient in the first 2 years and 100
square Metres there after till the fifth year when 150 square metres will be required. The
rental cost per square metre is expected to rise by 20% in the subsequent years. In the
first year this is estimated at US $ 15 per square metre.
Electricity and water charges will be stable in the first two years at US $ 100 and an
increase of about 20% is assumed in the subsequent years.

b Agent Equipment

The market price for Agent headsets and dial pads is expected to decline. The cost for these
items is based of the current market price of Freemate and NETCOM brands and a lower price
for other generic brands is assumed.

Freemate Desktop Analog Headset (BH-09TB) with built-in noise reduction, estimated at
$ 80-300 per unit,
Freemate Desktop Analog Dialpad (DA-202)? = $ 100–500 per unit
The cost of Branded desktop computers is also expected to decline over the next five
years. The following specifications have been assumed:

IBM Think centre Desktops with 15" CRT Monitor

Intel Pentium 4 Processor 531 with HT Technology
3.0 GHZ,1MB L2 Cache,800MB FSB
Intel 946GV Chipset
256MB SD-DDR 333MHz Memory
80GB EIDE 7200RPM Hard Disk Drive
15" Digital CRT Monitor
Keyboard & Optical Scroll Mouse
Integrated Realtek 10/100 Ethernet
DOS License, 1 Year On Site Warranty

c VoIP Connectivity

This includes costs for a 24-port Analog VoIP Gateway with SIP protocol support. Market price
for this equipment may vary according to supported protocols, functionality, brand and number
of ports. In the first year, one 24-port Gateway will suffice and more Gateways will be needed
in the subsequent years as the number of Agent seats increase.

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 d ASP Charges

These charges assume taking full advantage of high-end ASP technology solutions. The cost per
seat is expected at US $ 354 in the first year of operation and this should fall to US $ 163 over
the subsequent years. The following technologies will be supported:

IVR – Integrated Voice Response, for automated greetings and announcements, call-
directed call routing, and self service functionality
CTI – Computer Telephony Integration, for skills-based routing, customized call handling
based on customer profile, screen pop-ups, coordinated voice/data call transfer and call
conferencing, centralized resource monitoring, and management reporting.
CRM- Customer Relationship Management, for case management, knowledge
management, workforce management, and Agent Quality Monitoring.
A integrated system management environment that encompasses all administrative
functions such as creating Agents profiles, specifying queuing parameters, establishing
call routing instructions, systems monitoring functions ( e.g. resource utilizations,
alarms, and maintenance routines).
Predictive Dialer- for processing potential contacts and identifying disconnected
numbers, busy signals, unanswered calls and detecting answering machines – such calls
can be avoided, scheduled for later contacts, or pre-recorded messages can be left, thus
allowing live Agents only to deal with established connections that are directed to them.
ACD – Automatic Call Distribution, to automatically transfer calls to Agents who are idle.
Voice Logger, for logging conversations of all agents for Agent Quality monitoring and
control purposes.
IWR – Interactive Web Response, for web collaboration services including Web chat, co-
browse, web seminars, click-to-call etc.
Text to Speech capabilities
Voice Recognition capabilities
Queued Emails

e Telecom Costs

For the current Data/Voice Telecommunication tariffs please see Table 2 above. However, as
pointed out in section 2.1 above, the telecom tariffs are expected to reduce by over 50% by
2009 when the East African coast submarine cable becomes fully operational. The costings for
telecommunication costs are as detailed below:

At least 25kbps per Agent will be needed

Cost for TollFree call per minute are estimated at US $ 0.0175 during the first year and
a reduction of about 20% over the subsequent years.
About 100hours of TollFree calls will be made per Agent per month during the first year
and this will increase over the subsequent years with more shifts introduced.

Table 5 below gives further details:

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 Table 5: Telecommunication Cost projections (US $)
Period Projection Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5
Agent Seats 25 60 100 150 200
Cost/M US $ Cost/Mon US $ Cost/Mon US $ Cost/Mo US $ Cost/Mo US $
Costing Band width onth Annual Band width th Annual Band width th Annual Band width nth Annual Band width nth Annual
Bandwidth Required 512 kbps 3,000 36,000 768 kbps 3,600 43,200 1 mbps 2,930 35,160 2 mbps 5,859 70,308 2 mbps 5,859 70,308
Expected Reduction in Cost 20% 50% 50% 50%
Rental for Leased Line 0.0175 100 1,200 0.0100 100 1,200 0.0080 80 960 0.0080 50 600 0.0080 50 600
Tollfree Charges $ .0175/Min - $ .0100/Min - $ .0080/Min - $ .0080/Min - $ .0080/Min -
Tollfree Call Volume 100Hrs/Agent 44 525 110Hrs/Agent 66 792 120Hrs/Agent 96 1,152 150Hrs/Agent 180 2,160 150Hrs/Agent 240 2,880
Maintenance 100 1,200 100 1,200 250 3,000 300 3,600 300 3,600
Total Telecom Costs 3,244 38,925 3,866 46,392 3,356 40,272 6,389 76,668 6,449 77,388

f Labour Costs

Monthly labour costs represent the compensation and fully loaded expenses associated with the
Call Centre Agents, Supervisors, Managers, and IT Support staff, who will provide ongoing
support. Besides the monthly salary, employees will also be paid incentives depending upon
attendance regularity, achievement of targets. In some cases these expenses are assumed to
exceed monthly salary. Its assumed that employees at the level of Manager, Supervisor, and
Customer Care Representatives will cost about 10% more than in non-call centre environment.

Our Staffing strategy is to have an employment mix of full-time, part-time, and casual staff.
Staff composition will be as follows:

Full-time Staff:
o Call Centre Operations Managers
o Agents Supervisors
o Customer Care Representatives
o Agent Team Leaders ( Shift Leaders)
o Training Managers and Heads
o Trainers
o Marketing manager

Part-Time Staff:
o IT Support Personnel
o Call Centre Agents (On Short-Shift basis )

Casual Staff:
o Agents on short relief calls for staff on leave
o Agents to handle peak call times, wee evening hours, and weekend periods.

Our strategy is to take advantage of the big University student population in Kampala CBD, who
will be engaged on shorter shifts during the first two years of operation and eventually absorb
them as fully productive permanent call Centre CSOs or Agents.

It’s estimated that each Call Agent will work an average of 40 hours per week (about 200 hours
a month). A Staff rostering schedule and well managed shift programs will be implemented to
effectively manage call volumes and address peak call times.

The tables below give details of staffing requirements and expected call volumes:

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 Table 6: Labour Cost projections (US $)
Period Projection Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5
Agent Seats 25 60 100 150 200
Cost/M US $ Cost/M Cost/M Cost/Mo Cost/M
Costing FTE onth Annual FTE onth US $ Annual FTE onth US $ Annual FTE nth US $ Annual FTE onth US $ Annual

Operations Manager 1 500 6,000 1 500 6,000 2 500 12,000 2 550 13,200 2 550 13,200
Agent Supervisor 1 300 3,600 1 330 3,960 3 350 12,600 3 350 12,600 4 400 19,200
Training Manager/Head 1 300 3,600 1 300 3,600 2 300 7,200 2 350 8,400 2 350 8,400
Trainers - 200 - 1 200 2,400 1 200 2,400 2 250 6,000 2 250 6,000
IT Support Personnel 1 350 4,200 1 350 4,200 2 350 8,400 2 400 9,600 3 400 14,400
Agents (CSR) 15 200 36,000 40 220 105,600 80 250 240,000 100 250 300,000 150 250 450,000
Marketing Manager 1 350 4,200 1 400 4,800 2 400 9,600 2 450 10,800 2 500 12,000

Total Staff Requirements 20 2,200 57,600 46 2,300 130,560 92 2,350 292,200 113 2,600 360,600 165 2,700 523,200
Total Monthly Labour Costs 4,800 10,880 24,350 30,050 43,600
Percentage Increase 130% 5% 127% 100% 2% 124% 23% 11% 23% 46% 4% 45%
FTE = Full-Time Equivalent

Call volumes projections

<insert some assumptions>

Table 7: Call volumes per day per Agent (projections)

Period Projection Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5
Agent Seats 25 60 100 150 200
Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time
Costing (Minutes) (Seconds) No. of Call (Minutes) (Seconds) No. of Call Time (Minutes) (Seconds) No. of Call (Minutes) (Seconds) No. of Call (Minutes) (Seconds) No. of Call

a). Est. Total Calls per day 3,000 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000
b)- Estimated Call Length 2.0 120 2.0 120 1.5 90 1.0 60 1.0 60
c)- Estimated after Call Worktime 1.5 90 1.0 60 1.0 60 1.0 60 1.0 60
d)- Average Call Contact Time 3.5 210 3.0 180 2.5 150 2.0 120 2.0 120
e)- Available Time per Agent per 480 28,800 480 28,800 420 25,200 300 18,000 300 18,000
f)- Average Calls Per Agent (e/d) 137 160 168 150 150
g)- Est. Agent Requirements (a/f) 22 31 60 100 133
h)- Number of Shifts Required 1 2 2 3 3
Target Calls per Agent per day 160 192 210 150 150
Target Call Contact Time 3.0 2.5 2.0 2.0 2.0
Target total calls per day 4,000 11,520 21,000 22,500 30,000

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Call Centre Technology Solutions

Workforce

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