Q1. What are RAYA Lines of Business?

Raya operates in three main lines of business: Information Technology, Trade, and Call Centers .

Information Technology

Through its Information Technology division, Raya provides businesses with the ideal mix of technology solutions to meet the unique requirements of their operations. The division provides clientele in Egypt, the Middle East, and North Africa with a broad spectrum of world-class technology products, in addition to offering numerous valued added services to their businesses. The IT business is predominantly project-based, addressing both private and public sectors. The services Raya offers include infrastructure services, business applications and solutions as well as outsourcing services.

 
Trade

The Company’s Trade division caters primarily to the consumer market through three main functions: distribution, retail, and maintenance services for cellular phones and IT products under global brand names. The portfolio of products offered through the distribution, retail, and maintenance service functions include cellular phones predominantly under the Nokia brand name as well as Samsung, Sagem & I-mate. The IT product portfolio includes a range of computers, peripherals, and other accessories under brands such as Hewlett Packard, Dell, Xerox, 3Com, D-Link, Intel, and Microsoft.

Call Center

Raya Contact Center (RCC), ISO and COPC certified, is a 2200 seat call center of which 1125 are directed towards offshore outsourcing. RCC serves customers in 10 languages (English, French, German, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian, and Turkish). Our primary goal is to deliver the best services for our clients through offering Contact Center Services, Inside Sales Channel Management, and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services. Major customers include Microsoft, Dell, HTC, Vodafone, HSBC, General Motors, Daimler, Chrysler, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Carrier.

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Q2. What are RAYA current and future projects in each of its Lines of Business?

Information Technology: Given Raya’s market leadership in Egypt, and significant regional presence, we aim to achieve significant growth. We plan to accomplish this by increasing our services portfolio and expanding our value added offerings in all the markets we serve. Our strategy will be to capitalize on our IT expertise and volume of business by continuing to tap into new industry-specific solutions, such as those provided for Egypt’s customs authority and taxation systems. Likewise, we are enriching our core banking solution offerings to include Islamic banking and risk management systems. Finally, we will continue to enrich our regional presence, especially in Qatar and Kuwait.

Call Center: Based on compelling evidence and expert industry observers like A.T. Kearny and Datamonitor, Egypt’s potential as a global call center destination is huge. Moreover, recent government initiatives support Egypt’s aim to become the ultimate Call Center outsourcing destination.
Raya's Call Center is known for its wide coverage through serving several projects in different countries including Egypt, USA, Canada, UK, Europe, and the Middle East.
According to A.T.Kearny, Egypt ranks 13th on an overall index rating for offshore call center destinations worldwide and amongst the best for low infrastructure cost, low average wages for skilled, multi-lingual staff. Egypt’s large workforce includes around 200 thousand university graduates annually, growing at a yearly rate of 28%.
Datamonitor reported that ‘Egypt is a viable client service choice for companies concerned about reducing overhead costs, while at the same time maintaining a very high degree of customer interaction quality.’
International demand for call center services, today’s digital-age business tools, is on the rise, and Raya is well-positioned to lead this highly promising market.

Trade: we plan to increase the number of Raya multi-brand shops in Egypt to 60 by the end of 2007. Additionally, noting the marked differences in consumer behavior of the various customer segments, we are planning to launch a new chain of outlets by Q307, under the brand "Kazza Mizza" aimed at the lower income segments, where a significant surge in subscriber growth is expected.

In our Distribution activity, our strategy is to increase our coverage and reach in Cairo as well as the other governorates, by focusing on growing our direct distribution channel to reach 1,700 point of sale by end of 2007. To support the planned growth, Raya’s distribution fleet comprising currently of 25 vehicles, is expected to double in size by the end of 2007.
Additionally, Raya has a presence in Algeria’s mobile market, where penetration is expected to reach 87% by 2011. We are looking beyond Egypt by targeting other emerging African markets for distribution activities, leveraging our alliances with regional operators and handset providers.


Our Maintenance strategy is also set to take advantage of the market dynamics; as we expect a surge in used handsets as well as increased handset complexity. We have recently signed a contract with Nokia granting us a license to provide the highest level of mobile maintenance services to Egypt and 14 North West African countries. This regional Maintenance hub will be located in Smart Village, 6th of October city. The building is currently under construction and is expected to be finalized before end of 2007.

We have taken several steps towards expanding our maintenance activities into Africa. We have recently started to provide level 3 mobile maintenance services in Algeria, and we are planning to establish a new maintenance company in Nigeria to provide maintenance services for Nokia phones by Q307.

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Q3. What are RAYA achievements on the regional level?

Raya has implemented several IT infrastructure and business automation projects some of which are:

Telecom Sector: Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, Mobinil, Saudi Telecommunications Company, Ettihad Etisalat (Saudi Arabia), Djezzy GSM (Algeria) Tunisiana Mobile Operator (Tunisia), Jordan’s FastLink, Syriatel, and the Kuwaiti Mobile Telecommunications Company.

Banking Sector: We’ve implemented automation projects for the Arab National Bank of Saudi Arabia, Riyad Bank, Qatar National Bank, Central Bank of Jordan, Central Bank of Syria; and in Egypt, Bank Misr, Citibank, CIB, Bank of Alexandria and MIbank.

Energy Sector: Egyptian LNG, Enppi, Midor, UGDC, Saudi Aramco and Exxon Mobil

E-government: The Egyptian Income Tax Authority online services, Ministry of State for Administrative Development (Egypt), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Egypt), Ministry of Finance (Abu Dhabi and Egypt), Federal Government of the United Arab Emirates, the Riyadh principality and Qatar’s Ministry of Interior


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Q4. How will RAYA foster Egypt’s position in the international ICT Market?

Raya supports the Egyptian government initiatives through working together with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in promoting Egypt in the western world via attending several trade missions and trade shows. Raya focuses on achieving high levels of global certifications such as CMMi level 3- in software development, high levels of partnerships such as Raya and Cisco gold partnership, International Customer Service Association certification to Raya Contact Center pool of agents as well as attaining the ISO certification in almost all of Raya’s functions. Raya proves to the global market that quality certifications could be granted to an Egyptian organization.

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Q5. What are the challenges and threats facing RAYA while penetrating the global market?

Some of the challenges include: lack of awareness by that the Egypt is an IT destination and lack of trust in the Egyptian quality standards. Raya also strives to acquire several references in the western markets and finally, to compete in western markets Raya deploys stringent recruitment procedures which choosing its caliber in the local market.

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