Silah Gulf (Silah), a multi-award winning business process outsourcing (BPO) and customer experience provider serving the GCC region, announced ambitions plans to physically grow by nearly 120% by 2014. Silah currently employs over 450 people across its offices in Bahrain and Kuwait servicing private and public sector clients. It plans on reaching 1,000 strong by 2014.
“Silah managed to respond to 4,065,741 voice calls and in addition also responded to a lesser number of web chat, social media, video, and email interactions with customers in 2012. These interactions were mostly conducted in Arabic, followed by English and then Hindi. I would like to thank our terrific staff for their hard work in 2012,” Silah’s CEO, Joe Tawfik, said.
Providing gainful employment to Bahraini nationals across their regional officers, 63% of all staff are Bahrainis. In Q1 2013, Silah will be inaugurating their new office in the UAE and plans to make inroads into the Saudi Arabian market in 2013, thereby developing additional job opportunities for Bahraini’s abroad.
In 2012, Silah’s training and development offering, Silah Academy, completed the training of over 100 Bahraini graduates, all of whom are now employed with Silah. Sponsored by Tamkeen, the training initiative that was due to take two years was successfully completed in seven months. Recently, Tamkeen renewed their agreement with Silah Academy to train an additional 100 Bahrainis for the growing contact centre industry.
Silah also launched a manpower outsourcing offering in 2012, Silah Talent, a specialist manpower outsourcing service that provides regional companies with contact centre and retail agents, team leaders and managers for their contact centres and shops. Taking advantage of Silah’s best practice methodologies, business clients now hire fully trained staff helping increase efficiency and decreasing overhead costs.
An integral part of Silah’s offering in Bahrain is the management of the National Contact Centre (NCC) of Bahrain. The NCC offers a single number – 8000 8001 – for easy access to hundreds of government services. Helping increase access to government services to citizens, the NCC increases the efficiency with which the government delivers services to citizens.
In 2012, the NCC extended their operating hours with most services are available on a 24×7 basis. Proving over 250 services, some of the most commonly used services are: Smart Card Appointment Booking; Electricity and Water Payment Complaints; and Driving License Test appointment booking.
Government bodies currently utilizing the NCC’s cost effective and efficient services include the eGovernment Authority of Bahrain, the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Silah, a joint venture between Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority and UK-based Merchants, was inaugurated in April 2011 by Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.