English 
21-12-2011
The marketing of offshore services: the Dutch promotional activities of a new destination
The marketing of offshore services: the Dutch promotional activities of a new destination
For more than 20 years, companies in The Netherlands have been conducting IT- and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) work in various low-cost countries. The interest for offshore sourcing is growing, but competition is growing as well: there are already more than 200 service providers actively offering offshore services through marketing offices in Holland. Especially countries such as India, Romania and Ukraine are becoming popular among Dutch users.
In order to find new clients in Holland, many marketing and sales activities are required, especially if the service provider is from an 'unknown' country. The activities of Bangladesh illustrate these required promotional efforts. Hundreds of companies in Bangladesh offer services such as software programming, software testing, system conversion and migration, mobile applications and building of websites. BPO-services are also being offered: administrative services, contact centers, animation and graphic design services. Salaries are very competitive and are lower than India or China. Bangladesh is an interesting outsourcing destination and is one of the Goldman Sachs N-11 countries: the next eleven countries that are highly likely to follow the BRIC’s in leading world growth. And according to Gartner, it is one of the “30 Leading Locations for Offshore Services 2010-2011”.
On the other hand, the country is relatively unknown in Europe as a potential outsourcing destination. For this reason, at the end of 2010, the ITC (International Trade Centre, www.intracen.org), has started a project to promote and market Bangladesh as the next offshore outsourcing destination. This project is funded by the Dutch government (through CBI) and The Netherlands is one of the three target markets. Several activities took place in 2011:
From 31 January – 3 February, a business mission to Bangladesh was organised, with Dutch and Danish participants. During the trip, the SoftExpo 2011 exhibition was visited, and meetings with a large number of service providers took place. An impression of this mission can be found at: www.gpic.nl/BDtour11.pdf
On 21 and 22 June, a delegation of software and IT enabled service companies from Bangladesh took part in 2-day long business matchmaking sessions in Amsterdam. All of participating companies expressed their satisfaction about these B2B meetings and most of them expect that the meetings will lead to future business for their companies. As a part of the session, a seminar on Bangladesh Outsourcing was also held. After the event, the Bangladesh Ambassador inaugurated the Bangla House, the newly set-up marketing office by a group of IT companies for outsourcing to Bangladesh.
On 18 October, another seminar on offshore sourcing took place in Amsterdam. With 130 participants, this afternoon event included also two speakers focussing on Bangladesh. The representative of BASIS explained about Bangladesh as the next outsourcing destination, and a speaker from Aprosoft presented a case study on offshoring. On 19 October, a specific B2B matchmaking took place in Amsterdam, and 14 Bangladeshi IT outsourcing companies participated. More than 20 Dutch companies took part over 50 meetings with their Bangladeshi counterparts during this matchmaking event. For an impression of those events: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RXiBTRt4KY.
From 1 – 3 December, the e-Asia 2011 event was held in Dhaka. One of the topics was outsourcing (outsourcing2011.com.bd) and delegates from various European countries, including The Netherlands, participated in this well-attended conference.
Dutch IT-company Cimsolutions has 250 employees and operates from 6 locations in The Netherlands. In December, it opened an office in Dhaka. Pictures of the opening ceremony can be found at www.cimsolutions.nl/gallery/reception-opening-dhaka-office/index.htm.
From 21 - 26 February 2012, another European business mission will visit Bangladesh. The goal is to give the participants detailed information about global sourcing in the fields of IT and BPO, and especially about the many opportunities in the capital Dhaka. The trip will have an informal character with meetings with service providers, network events and with attention to cultural elements. We will also visit the major event SoftExpo 2012 (www.softexpo.com.bd). An attractive travel package (including free stay) can be made available for potential users of services from Bangladesh. For the program: www.gpic.nl/bd-tour2012.pdf
For info: Paul Tjia, GPI Consultancy: paul@gpic.nl
