Avaya canvasses contact center clients

US telecoms equipment firm Avaya (NYSE: AV) is conducting a tour of Jamaica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic on behalf of US contact center firms seeking to take operations offshore, Panamanian daily La Prensa reported. The governments in all three countries have developed incentive proposals to offer to firms looking to outsource their contact center services, since this would encourage growth of local industry. The tour included 15 companies, which should be making investment decisions by the end of the year, according to Rodrigo Graell, Avaya's regional director for Central America, Venezuela and Ecuador. "This is a great opportunity for Panama because the other countries that could be competing for this type of investment, like the Philippines or India, are already saturated," Graell was reported as saying. Following a previous Avaya, tour US contact center firm National Asset Recovery Services decided to build a facility in Panama in 2002 and now employs 550 people. Between 2002 and 2004, contact centers in Panama were responsible for 6,000 jobs. A cloud on the horizon could be the lack of trained and qualified contact center workers in these markets. The Panamanian government needs to develop training programs or existing centers will have all the qualified people hired by the end of this year, according to NARS Panama vice president Marcos Vallarino.