Making a mark in technology globally
WHEN DUANE Williams graduated from Maldon High School and landed a job at a call centre some 16 years ago, little did he know that he would have stuck around long enough to hold a senior position in the burgeoning business process outsourcing sector.
But now he is information technology (IT) manager at the largest locally owned BPO firm in Jamaica, itelBPO Smart Solutions.
“Managing the IT infrastructure, anything that has to do with computers, networks, software, would fall within my portfolio,” a proud Williams noted.
In fact, Williams is the first worker hired by founder and CEO Yoni Epstein, and without any tertiary education, he has managed to steadily rise up the rank, garnering experience on the job over the years.
“For me, it’s primarily experience. I didn’t go to college; I started working immediately after I left high school 16 years ago. When I just left high school I had a big passion for IT. I started working with e-Services,” he revealed.
Added Williams: “At the time, it wasn’t like a deliberate move to get into the industry. I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet, I just wanted work, but when I got involved in the industry, I realised that this is something I really wanted to do, so I started taking it more seriously.”
Now one of the executives at itelBPO, he still holds a lot of respect for his former employees at e-Services from where he gained his early experience. But he stressed that when the company exchanged hands, he fortuitously dropped into the hands of Yoni Epstein, who he met through a mutual friend. They immediately connected as they both were clinging to hopes of making a mark in the sector. The rest is now history.
The unassuming Williams now holds high expectations for itelBPO, which has grown from a small space with seven workers, to now over 1000 employees housed at four locations – two in Montego Bay, one in Kingston, and another in The Bahamas.
“We are the new kids on the block. They (clients) can see our capabilities and they have seen the results, so I think that we are in a unique position to win bigger client business,” he remarked. “I think the growth that is on the horizon is going to exceed the growth we have seen already.”
Williams predicted that in the next five years, the company will probably be more like 300 or 400 per cent of the capacity it is today, and that’s being conservative. “It can be even better,” the IT manager declared. Duane Williams Global VP of Information Technology