There’s
a new Call Center in Jamaica folks! And for those looking for a new place to
work, the ICD (Industrial Commercial Development) Group, owned by the Matalon
Family, will be setting up shop soon at The Towers at Dominica Drive as stated
in the article “ICD
Group Enters Call Centre Market”, Published Wednesday October 9, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Their
name in Jamaica is ADV Communications, the Jamaican arm of ICD Group Limited, located at 7-9 Harbour
Street, Kingston 11, Jamaica and represents the first time
that the Jamaican company has ventured outside of Canada. ICD Group Limited had
recently acquired the Call Center Operations of ACI (Advantage Communications
Inc), located on Prince Edward Island in Canada's smallest province.
As
explained in “ICD
Group acquires 50% of Canadian BPO firm”, published Wednesday, October 09,
2013, The Jamaica Observer, ACI is
an established BPO (Business Outsourcing Processor) or Call Center located in
Canada that was founded in 1996. Thus via this acquisition, ICD has entered
into the Call Center Business!
Why come to Jamaica – Sun, Sea and Easy Foreign
Exchange
According
to ICD Chief Operating Officer
Vikram Dhiman, the reason for coming to Jamaica are similar to that of Xerox
buying ACS and coming to Jamaica, quote: “We also have the infrastructure which
has been created between Flow and LIME. We have well-educated young people
looking jobs. Finally it is a source of foreign currency. Those are the
conditions. The ability to provide employment is one of the biggest reasons for
us. Our chairman Mr (Joseph M.) Matalon is interested in employing young
people. We want to grow to 5,000 seats in the next five to seven years”.
ACS-Xerox
came to Jamaica after the printer maker
Xerox bought ACS (Affiliated Computer Services) Ltd in 2009 and expanded the
Jamaican Chapter with the Amazon Account as explained in my blog article
entitled “Convergys
and Aegis Communications Call Centers Coming – FDI powered Call Center
Renaissance in Jamaica thanks to our Good English”. They saw potential in
using Jamaicans as Call Center Agents oweing to:
1.
English being our first language
2.
Proximity to the US Market, including shared time zones
3.
Fiber Optic Connectivity to the US of A to Carry Voice and
Data Traffic
4.
Similarity in our cultures, especially our Americanized
habits
5. Educated
workforce unable to find gainful employment
ACI was a fairly young company that was barely making revenue, hence the
acquisition via share swap with the principals ACI Chief Executive Kent MacPhee
and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Willis , most likely happy to part with the
company for cash and Seats on ICD Group Limited Board of Directors. Thus they
were always ripe for acquisition by the ICD Group Limited, a Jamaican company whose
main business in Construction, property management, and insurance, the business
of the Matalon Family!
It’s also profitable, as with a small investment, in
this case US$350,000
(J$36.4-million) in infrastructure mainly a Server, a Router some Computers and
Networking Equiptment, mainly Cables and Switches and Tables and chairs, you
can quickly turn a huge profit. No wonder Mr (Joseph M.) Matalon, possibly a
relative of Vikram Dhiman, was quick to set up shop in New Kingston!
Composition of ACI – Near Shore Reincarnation as
ADV Communications
ACI a lot
like ACCENT Marketing in many ways:
1. Technical support
2. Corporate Help Desk Applications
3. Translation services e.g.
English, French, Spanish
4. Chat services e.g. IM (Instant
Messenger) and email support
Their
clients are in the following areas:
1. Canadian Telecommunications
2. Technology industry
3. Hospitality
4. Retail
5. Education
6. Health-care sectors
Interestingly
the IDC Group or the ADV Communications company has no website up a yet, even
after doing extensive searches of the Internet and the Dark Internet, in
which I only found emails referring to
the company being sent around! Interestingly, the Towers in Dominica Drive have
several unoccupied floors and have only a few clients.
It has a
few empty floors, with a capacity for more than about 500 persons. It’s not
clear how many floors the Call Center will occupy, but they’ll probably blow
through their original quota of 50 persons to that number by December 2014.
At
US$350,000 (J$36.4-million) invested in the setting up of ADV Communications, their
first foray outside of Canada, that translates to the rental of about 2 floors,
one for the Production Floor and another for Administration. So they have the
potential to grow.
ACCENT TES have first pick – Agents Looking for a
Better View on Life
Thus
anyone from ACCENT Marketing, which is also in New Kingston and a stone throw
away that’s ambitions would want to jump across, especially if the salaries or
benefits are a little more. Even if it was just a change of scenery, it’ll be a
good move for the experienced in the Call Center World as most Call Centers
that start out this way usually use it founding members to become Account
Managers at a later date, an attraction for the ambitions few.
So after
a year, the first batches would have been promoted and they’ll rapidly grow to
100 by mid 2014, a ripe opportunity for those at ACCENT marketing wishing to
advance their careers in the Call Center World! And it’s STILL in New Kingston
and currently recruiting a Centre Manager, already a higher level of responsibility
for anyone interested in making it in this very transient of workplaces.
Stick to my blog for more
developments on ADV Communications, the Call Center arm of Matalon owned ICD
Group Limited! Send applications to the following Address:
ADV Communications
The Towers
25 Dominica Drive
Kingston 5
Email: kingstonjobs@advantagecall.com
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