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Global outsourcing powerhouse, ibex, is increasing the diversity of jobs within Jamaica’s global digital services industry through an expansion of its current workforce of 5,500 employees. The company provides customer support in sectors that include retail, finance, healthcare, and telecommunications, and it now offers a broad spectrum of business services from its Jamaican service centres.

With a client list heavily concentrated in the US, Europe, and Asia, ibex identified Jamaica as the perfect place for rapid expansion due to the island’s location and high-quality talent.

“ibex has experienced incredible growth in Jamaica – in the last three years we’ve grown 397%,” Country Director Jaime Vergara revealed. “We have gone from ranking as the 17th outsourcing company on the island for number of employees to number one, and ibex has been recognized for not only our growth, but for our performance, by organisations like Frost & Sullivan, a leading industry analyst group, and as Nexus Nearshore BPO of the Year in 2019 by Nearshore Americas.”

The high-calibre staff ibex has attracted has cleared the way for it to bring more business to Jamaica’s outsourcing industry and it now offers Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) services from the island’s service centres. KPO is the outsourcing of information-related business activities such as accounting outsourcing, human resources (HR) outsourcing, digital marketing and management consultancy. Legal, medical and other healthcare analyses are additional examples of KPO.

As the world further relies on BPO and KPO during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is predicted that more business services will be digitised during and after the crisis. This and other factors will increase the demand for outsourcing, creating the environment for ibex to safely execute its growth plans both in Jamaica, and globally.

“We plan on prolonging our unprecedented growth and we hope to reach 10,000 employees in Jamaica over the next few years,” Vergara disclosed.

With the specialised skills needed for KPO, Vergara said Jamaica was the perfect location for ibex to offer these services. “Jamaica offers a talented and educated labour pool which is what has made us attractive to our clients, particularly in the financial services sector,” he said. “Through programs like the GSSP (Global Services Sector Project), the employees we hire are on a career path and are looking for companies to join where they can be successful. They are eager to work with their customers in their specialised area.”

Vergara also expressed appreciation for private and public sector partnerships including entities such as the Office of the Prime Minister, the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) and the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) among others.

JAMPRO, for example, has supported ibex as an investment facilitation partner, beginning with the launch of the first service centre in Portmore. The company now has five service centres across Jamaica.

ibex believes that its advancement into KPO has led to increased customer confidence, displaying the company’s adaptation to the needs of today’s clients. The company looks forward to more expansion in Jamaica.