St. Lucia
The country has an open economy and well-developed infrastructure. Like most other Caribbean countries tourism is the main revenue earner in St. Lucia.
“The island has a high level of employment, and we are the only U.S. call center operating in St. Lucia ,” says David Kresis, the founder of K2M Solutions. “The island has focused on education, and educational institutes churn out 97% of graduates per annum. We have an English speaking culture, which encourages American companies to outsource to countries like St. Lucia .”
“Many companies are now merging their collection and customer-care process. Earlier it was not so visible in here,” says Kresis.
An entry-level call-center agent earns three dollars per hour, and supervisors usually make about five dollars per hour. The managers in the company are Americans because the industry is not so mature, and hence doesn't have the expertise to handle projects. “But in the next three years we will be able to develop managers internally,” adds Kresis.
The company's clientele includes AOL, AIG, Privacy Solutions, Drive Financial, Integretal, PaymentOne, Broadband National.
“When we made the decision to outsource nearly three years ago, our primary objective was to lower costs,” says Bob Goodwin, Program Director at AOL and a client of KM2 Solutions. “KM2 Solutions has not only helped us achieve that objective but in the course of working with them, AOL has realized a much higher level of client retention. In fact, AOL's ‘partnership' with KM2 Solutions has played an integral role in our company's expansion of call centers to other Caribbean islands,” Goodwin adds.
Barbados
The country has the same time zone as Eastern U.S. for half the year and is only one hour ahead for the other half. That means early morning starters can get service into Europe . It has a large English-speaking population. The government is also undertaking several initiatives to support the software industry in Barbados . A good example is the establishment of the Barbados Technology Training Center . The government is also encouraging international business to Barbados and particularly in the area of asset management. As a result, the government has established “Invest Barbados ” to promote and sell Barbados as a mature international business and financial services hub. NCO Group has a contact center in Barbados.
Trinidad and Tobago
While these twin islands are rapidly emerging as tourism hotspots, the country also has a capability to be developed as a nearshore outsourcing destination because of strong English language skills and the low inflation rate. Fujitsu and Microsoft also have setups here.
