Call Center International (CCI (News - Alert)), a professional outsourcing services company providing telephone and Internet-based contact center services, has pioneered the operation of contact centers in Lebanon. CCI Chairman, Jay Hanna, described this move as a representation of a major new phase in the global call center market.

This new level of operations was made possible by an agreement reached with InContact Inc. The two companies have entered into an exclusive two-year contract to build and operate cutting-edge contact centers in Lebanon.

As part of this strategic partnership, CCI is providing bandwidth, connectivity, staffing and management. InContact is making a substantial commitment by providing Automated Call Distribution (ACD), eLearning and Workforce Management solutions. With this contract, CCI has the exclusive rights to use the services of inContact within Lebanon.

Five licenses have been awarded to CCI to operate contact centers in Lebanon by the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications. This move is part of the Lebanese government’s efforts to try and provide more jobs for its workforce, which is considered to be well educated and highly skilled. In addition to the licenses, the Lebanese government has also pledged to provide full support and encouragement of the new business.

With more than two decades of experience in telecommunications, Jay Hanna Ajaltouni, CCI Chairman, is set to lead contact center veterans with more than a century of combined experience in establishing and operating contact centers.

“We have the objective of bringing new jobs to Lebanon as well as offering a state-of-the-art value proposition to our customers," said Mr. Ajaltouni, in a Monday statement.

Senior Corporate Advisor, William R Robertson, Ph.D. said in the Monday statement. "We are planning a total of five contact centers in Lebanon to be provisioned over time and look forward to working with our technology partners and the Ministry of Telecommunications as well as the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce in this process.

 

One of our key focus areas includes the development of online distance education for schools, government agencies, and higher learning institutions."

This arrangement between CCI and inContact perfectly positions both companies to capitalize on each other’s strengths. Lebanon represents a growing market of opportunity for the contact center industry and gaining support from the government for its plans to drive the market there is considerable.

The one challenge could be convincing global partners that such a location will prove profitable for customer service operations. The stigma associated with offshoring has never really diminished and that may limit the opportunity in this area if the strategy is not positioned just right.