Sutherland Launches New Delivery Center in Mandeville, Jamaica

International BPO firm Sutherland Global has further expanded in Jamaica, launching a new delivery center in Mandeville. This is the company’s third office in the island nation, with the other two located in Kingston and on Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.
Kingston office will hire 1,200 professionals, while more than 500 employees are already working in Mandeville, according to Jamaica Observer. The Jamaican government has recently relocated its postal service employees in Kingston, saying that it wants to free up office space for foreign BPO firms planning to expand operations in the country.
One of the foreign BPO firms that the government was referring to was Sutherland. Judging by the government’s past statement, Xerox and telecom operator Flow are also about to launch call centers in the Caribbean country. Flow is reportedly relocating its 400-seat call center from El Salvador.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who inaugurated Sutherland’s delivery center, said that eight major BPO firms operating in her country would generate 6,000 jobs over the next five years.
Hit hard by a high rate of unemployment, Jamaica offers a wide range of incentives for BPO firms, including concessions on income tax, exemption from the duties and taxes on imported items, and employment tax credits.
Jamaica was the first country for Avasant Foundation, a non-profit of the global consulting firm Avasant, to launch its youth digital employment initiative, which has already trained more than 30 youths in the island nation.
Sutherland is running similar initiative, known as Earn While You Learn, in partnership with Jamaica’s University of Technology (UTech). Unlike Avasant, Sutherland will employ the students and pay them a salary during the course of the training. According to Jamaica observer, as many as 420 students in the university are undergoing training in BPO service.
Sutherland has been operating in Jamaica for four years, offering services in finance and accounting, human resource outsourcing, sales, technical support, and customer care. Most of its agents provide customer care services through voice, video, chat, and email.