Mandeville gets its first business process outsourcing company

WESTERN BUREAU:

The multibillion-dollar business process outsourcing company, Sutherland Global Services (BPO), is expanding to Mandeville, Manchester, within six months.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at the Jamaica Investment Forum yesterday morning at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Sutherland, which already employs 2,000 Jamaicans, will be the first customer-care operator to open shop in Manchester. With Mandeville, the company's head count will grow to 3,000, says country head and associate vice president, Odetta Rockhead.

The company has been operating in Jamaica just over two years, offering services in finance and accounting, human resource outsourcing, sales, technical support and customer care. This is delivered through voice, video, chat and email and back-office operation.

Jamaica attractive to clients

When Sutherland commenced its Jamaica operations in 2012, its first home was the University of the West Indies, Mona. Fifty per cent of the employees are students, in a model tagged, 'Earn where you learn'. The company has since expanded to Knutsford Boulevard, in New Kingston.

"Jamaica is very attractive to clients. We have closed 100 per cent of the business prospects to have visited our Jamaican operations," Rockhead told The Gleaner.

Outperforming the rest of the world

According to her, in relation to Fortune 50 companies, Jamaica was outperforming the rest of the world. Fortune 50 include leading telecoms giants, online retailers and technology companies headquartered in the United States.

Sutherland's model has always been to go into territories that are untapped, stated Rockhead, adding that, Mandeville has excellent human resources. "It is a university town, it has the most tertiary institutions per capita and has a lot of qualified individuals as a result of the bauxite industry taking a nosedive," she explained.

Established in 1986, Sutherland Global Services is headquartered in Rochester, New York, hiring more than 30,000 professionals globally. Fifty per cent of the organisation's revenue is generated by Fortune 50 companies.

Lauding the organisation, Simpson Miller said Sutherland Global was an outstanding example of the expansive growth now taking place in the country's ICT/BPO industry, the epicentre of which is located in the city of Montego Bay.