itel, the Caribbean’s largest homegrown customer experience (CX) provider, has just announced its acquisition of Emerge, a business process outsourcer in Guyana. The new addition will include 700 new staff members across operations in Guyana, Honduras and a work-at-home network in the U.S.
This is a strategic acquisition aimed at widening itel’s already expansive geographic footprint that includes locations across the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Located in a seven-story building in the heart of Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, the new operations will offer itel the physical space to grow and scale. It has the immediate capacity to hold 1500 additional staff with potential for further build-out, and the facility’s urban setting gives access to a young, educated labor pool among the city’s population of over 200,000 inhabitants.
A hotspot for BPO investment in Latin America, Honduras is known for its bilingual talent pool that is culturally aligned and in close proximity to the North American market. itel’s new Honduras operations are located in Altia Smart City, which offers some of the most advanced technologies and smartly designed buildings and spaces in Latin America.
“This acquisition takes us into two more Geos that we’ve had on our radar for a few years now. It also further entrenches our geo-diversity in the region and offers our clients many diverse options Nearshore, including On-Premise to Work-at-Home to your ‘Office Anywhere.’ We’re happy to welcome the Emerge family into ours as we look forward to all the successes to come,” stated Yoni Epstein, itel’s Founding Chairman & CEO.
The acquisition also brings a portfolio of top tier clients representing some of North America’s biggest brands. For digitally driven organizations, Guyana and Honduras present an ideal business environment. Based in the countries’ urban capitals, itel’s new sites are at the center for retail and financial services and offer solid business infrastructure, top-tier educational institutions and modern transportation systems that will boost itel’s recruitment and employee performance capabilities in the region.
Emerge’s senior team is strong and will remain on board as itel moves to the next level of enhancing Guyana’s operations. “Over the first 90-days we will focus on ensuring the new operations and facilities are enhanced to reflect ‘the itel way.’ We will be investing heavily in training and development of its people and systems, as well as upgrades to their sites and IT infrastructure,” explained Epstein about the planned integration.
Built from the ground up, Emerge was founded by a husband-and-wife team over a decade ago. The company grew steadily over the years largely through its existing client base, which demonstrates credibility and dependability. They also benefit from a strong family-like culture, which aligns with itel’s core values of Quality, Integrity, Reliability and Family.
With operations now in 9 separate countries, itel offers clients the flexibility to ramp their CX delivery, as needed, to meet the fluctuating demands of the New Economy.