14 DAY TRIAL // Even though India, Singapore, Mexico or the Philippines are generally more appealing as locations for technological support call centers, HP seems to want to distinguish itself from the fold by building such centers in northern African countries. The company has not revealed how many facilities it plans to open but has disclosed that it is set to hire at least 1,000 people by the end of 2010.
HP seems to have chosen a rather difficult period for founding such a center, especially since customers don't exactly enjoy having to work with foreign tech support. In addition, the actual consumer segment will likely be more prone to harsh criticism considering the high unemployment, especially in the United States. Still, HP doesn't appear to be overly concerned, at least not enough as to follow the flock and build its tech support centers in India, Singapore, Mexico or the Philippines.
"We see Africa as a potential base for providing all sort of services and technical support for customers outside of Africa," said Rainer Koch, HP Managing Director, in a statement to Reuters. "We plan to invest more in the future on the continent on that perspective."
HP has not revealed which countries it is considering for the establishment of its centers, but it will likely have to choose wisely considering the many wars and extreme poverty problems that currently plague many of the African nations. From a marketing point of view, using one of the aforementioned more “popular” locations would be much more preferable for a number of reasons.
India and Singapore have cheaper labor and the young generation is quite familiar with western cultures. Also, many workers have attended university classes and are well acquainted with the English language. Singapore even has a more noteworthy IT infrastructure than other markets. Africa, on the other hand, has neither of these advantages, and HP will have to invest money and time into training and teaching its employees.