Just a week before the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III), the award underpins ISON Group’s contribution in leveraging India’s proven process IP to develop Sub-Saharan Africa and generate thousands of jobs
ISON Group has been selected as the winner of the “Distinguished Achievement in IT & ITES” category in the 
ASSOCHAM India-Africa Champion in Biz Awards 2015. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, ISON Group has presence across 25 countries in Africa making it the leading IT & ITeS player in the continent. ISON Group has over 10,000 employees in Africa, India, the Middle East and the ASEAN region. It has 8000 employees in Africa where its workforce comprises 99% African nationals.
India’s Minister for Railways Hon’ble Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu gave the award to Mr. Ramesh Awtaney, Founder and Chairman of ISON Group, who is also known for pioneering the path-breaking revenue-share IT outsourcing deal between IBM and Bharti Airtel that became an industry benchmark and a Harvard case study. The award was presented to the ISON Group in presence of ASSOCHAM President Mr. Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, YES BANK; H.E. Ms. Gennet Zewide, Dean of African Missions in India and Ambassador-Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Mr. Ambuj Chaturvedi, Chairman, India-Africa Business Promotion Council, ASSOCHAM; Mr. G.P. Srivastava, Director General, AICADR; and other dignitaries.
Says Mr. Ramesh Awtaney, Founder and Chairman, ISON Group, “It is an honor to be receiving this coveted award just days before the historic India Africa Forum Summit. India and Africa have so much in common and so much to learn from each other. We draw inspiration from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for a Digital India and his focus on skill development. ISON Group is working towards enabling a similar vision of a Digital Africa. We have invested in developing local systems and empowering local talent through skill development centres. By importing our proven best practices from matured markets like India, we have successfully reversed the exploitative trend of “taking work to IP” that was prevalent in African industry. Instead, ISON Group has proven that it is possible to take “IP to work” to help Africa generate large scale employment and revenues. We are establishing Sub-Saharan Africa as a strong contender in the offshoring sector.”
ISON Group comprises of three companies. ISON BPO has emerged as the largest independent BPO service provider in Africa that serves 200 million customers providing analytics, customer experience management, voice process solutions and CRM process solutions. ISON Technologies offers end-to-end IT services including systems integration, application management, cloud, analytics and managed services, and is a leading pan-African partner for major companies such as AVAYA, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, Juniper and Riverbed. ISON Group has recently also launched ISON Innovation and Investments (I3), an incubator that aims to promote innovative digital businesses in Africa by providing a platform to start-ups and entrepreneurs.
By setting up state-of-the-art facilities in Category B cities such as Ilorin, Abeokuta, Ibadan and Kano in Nigeria, and in other countries like Liberia, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Chad, Niger etc., ISON Group is helping develop an ecosystem to help raise the standards of living. It’s IT and ITeS offerings have enabled African telecom providers register a huge growth in customer penetration by drastically cutting down waiting time on customer care calls. Besides reducing customer service costs by 50%, ISON is helping telcos achieve service levels that surpass Africa’s conventional industry norms by far, thereby making ‘customer experience’ a competitive edge in the African telecom industry. Some of ISON’s marquee clients include Airtel, MTN, Viettel, Tigo (Millicom), Nakumatt, AIICO, AON, fastjet, DS TV (Multi-choice), Chase Bank Kenya, Union Bank Nigeria, Ibadan Power and Wari.
In less than 5 years of operation, ISON has won several accolades including Gartner Cool Vendor 2015, EBA 50 Best Global Employer Brand 2015, EBA Africa Best Employer Brand 2014, CIO 100, Best Business Award for Customer Focus, and Best Technology Vendor Supplier Award for Zimbabwe. ISON was also a finalist in the Total Telecom Africa Awards 2015, as well as the coveted African Business Awards 2015 in CSR & Africa Business of the Year categories spanning all industries.
