Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 53 | Page 10

NEWS Raya Contact Centre transitions agent workforce to remote working Rackspace boosts investment across EMEA with UAE expansion Raya Contact Centre, a leading Business Process Outsourcing service provider with contact centres in the UAE, Egypt and Poland, has announced that it has successfully enabled its entire contact centre workforce to work remotely. The news comes as efforts are being made to combat the spread of Coronavirus and as organisations across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa (MENA) follow the social distancing recommendations of government and healthcare authorities. As the company’s contact centre is built on Avaya solutions, Avaya played a critical role in ensuring a seamless transition that resulted in no cost implications for Raya Contact Centre. “As the BPO services provider to clients that include highly reputed regional and international businesses, it is imperative that we keep operations on track, while prioritising the safety and well-being of our staff,” said Yasser M Sharaf, IT Director at Raya Contact Centre. “Avaya has been extremely proactive in anticipating our Business Continuity requirements and implementing a solution without us having to incur any additional costs. This has given us the ability to utilise our existing investments to seamlessly transition our workforce to a remote working arrangement.” This is in line with Avaya’s on-going efforts to ensure Business Continuity for its customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology service company Rackspace is increasing its global footprint to bring more local resources and plug the cloud technology skills gap in the Middle East. Rackspace is investing heavily across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in 2020 as part of its overall strategy to be the best technology services company in the world. As part of this ambition, it has announced its expansion into the Middle East to enhance the support of local customers. The expansion is endorsed by a multimillion dollar investment and includes the launch of a hub based in Dubai which will employ a robust salesforce, professional services consultants and marketing support. The focus on recruitment will support the cloud skills gap locally, further enhancing the customer experience delivered in the region. The move responds to both Rackspace’s established success in the Middle East as it currently has over 500 customers in the region, as well as the market growth and maturity of cloud technology. The strategy will be led by George Pawlyszyn who has been appointed as General Manager, Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Rackspace. He will be focused on providing trusted and unbiased expertise to migrate customers to the cloud securely and enhance existing customers’ environment while working closely with partners, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. 10 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com