Mark Hillary's AMMAN TT presentation at the MENA ICT conference in Jordan on March 7 2013 - focused on a new wave of outsourcing from MENA

1. How is outsourcing changing
and how can Jordan position
itself in this new context?
Mark Hillary: CEO, IT Decisions
MENA ICT
Jordan, March 7 2013

2. “…In 2013, [analyst firm] has included Jordan
at the list of top 30 offshore destinations…”
Take all these lists with a pinch of salt…
• Can you really compare countries with
anything other than a broad brush?
• Cities, companies, cultures all different
even within a nation…
• Most business customers don’t buy from a
location because of a list
• Most importantly, are your potential
customers really reading this stuff?

3. • We are no longer living out the Millennial
outsourcing goldrush… you need to work
harder these days… what is your USP
• What services are you providing? Is there
something unique you can offer?
• India is the usual benchmark for ICT
outsourcing, but that was a special case,
you cannot just copy NASSCOM
• The sector is already very important to
Jordan - already 14% of GDP

4. The world has moved on
• The world has changed enormously,
especially in the past 5 years – post
Facebook
• We are living in a far more globally
connected world --- in terms of
business, culture, lifestyle…
• Graduates today do not remember
any life before being connected
globally 24/7… Radically changing
business from the bottom up

5. Information Technology is
much more than just IT
today…
• Almost everyone now is a consumer of
technology enabled services, in the past
people using IT were specialists.
• As we talk, IT is changing the world,
changing every business, and you are a
part of that change
• IT is even changing societies, just look at
the Arab spring and Occupy movement

6. What’s the best approach today?
Two key issues:
• World has changed, services are going
entirely global and you can target
SMEs more effectively than ever with
social tools and networks
• Don’t be caught in the trap of copying
a traditional offshore outsourcing
model and just promoting low-cost
service

8. New business models
You have great people – a lot of them -
and the Internet infrastructure now
supports global working…
Jordan hardly registers on oDesk, yet this
is where skilled individuals in the
Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh are all
looking for work

9. Scaling it up
oDesk is making freelance working
really take off elsewhere, but you also
need to scale up and help SMEs
Outsourcing is a normal, accepted
business practice used by every large
company. SMEs are suffering in many
countries – the potential to help them
is enormous!

10. Innovation… being smaller can be better!
• Facebook: 3,000 employees
• Google: 54,000 employees
• Amazon: 88,000 employees
• Twitter: 900 employees
• Instagram: 13 employees
You don’t need to think of this in the model
of traditional outsourcing at all… it’s just
global services!

11. Summary
• Play to your strengths – the SME clients for
corporate work and the end consumer market
• Think of new markets and services where you
excel plus new ways of delivering global servic
not just copying what worked a decade ago
• Delivering globally does not mean low-cost
offshore outsourcing – start thinking like
consumers of products
• Number of employees no longer restricts
innovation, impact, or revenue… you can do gr
things with a small team and the right ideas

12. Thank you… stay in touch!
Mark Hillary – based in São Paulo
www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary
mail@markhillary.com
Twitter: @markhillary