Global insurance giant Sun Life of Canada plans to expand its business process outsourcing operations and possibly set up a call center in the Philippines, taking advantage of the country’s English-speaking human resources.

Sun Life has close to 200 seats in the country handling the information technology requirements of the firm’s operations in the United States and Canada.

“We’re expanding our BPO and potentially moving our call center offices here,” Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) president Riza Mantaring said in an interview on Friday.
The plan was to expand the number of BPO seats in the country by 500 to cater to the IT requirements of Sun Life and Canada, Mantaring said.

“Sun Life certainly has favorable impressions of the Philippines and we expect that the investments will continue,” Mantaring said.

The Philippines is the second outsourcing hub of Sun Life in Asia. The financial giant operates about 1,000 BPO seats in India. Outside of Asia, Sun Life has an outsourcing hub in Ireland.

Mantaring said Sun Life would study the best vehicle for its prospective call center hub in the country, which she said would hopefully rise by next year. “They are already looking at how to set it up,” she said.

The Philippine unit of Sun Life recently moved to its new 14-story headquarters in Fort Bonifacio. Sun Life itself occupies 7 ½ floors while the remaining 6 ½ floors are for rent, attracting multinational giants like Nokia and Philips. The building is expected to be fully occupied in a few months.

“Our timing has been very fortunate because when we finished, demand was very good,” she said.

Apart from investing in BPO and the new building, Sun Life also recently bought into the Yuchengcos’ insurance unit Grepalife, thus acquiring a platform for bancassurance, or the cross-selling of insurance products using bank branches. In this partnership, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. will be the vehicle in selling variable unit-linked insurance (VUL).

VUL, a hybrid between a mutual fund and life insurance, becomes variable as investment returns are dependent on the market performance of the fund where the premium is invested.

In 2007 or before the US subprime crisis, Mantaring said VUL comprised 90 percent of the company’s sale of protection products. During the 2008-2009 period, there was some shift in preference back to traditional life insurance, splitting the business segments evenly.

But this year, even as the financial markets have remained very volatile, Mantaring said VUL has become the dominant segment again, accounting for about 80 percent of the business.

Mantaring said she saw a lot of potential for Sun Life to grow the business especially because only 14 percent of Filipinos have insurance coverage, including group insurance. Individual insurance penetration, however, was much meager at 4 percent.

Mylene Lopa, Sun Life’s chief marketing officer in the Philippines, said the company’s financial literacy program was starting to bear fruit as more than 60 percent of respondents in a recent survey were now thinking of financial planning.

Source:http://business.inquirer.net/33525/sun-life-to-expand-bpo-operations-in-philippines

The Murugappa group has divested its shareholding in Laserwords, a pre-press publishing BPO entity, to SPi Global, a Philippines-based outsourcing services provider.

The group said in a press release the Murugappa Group entities — Carborundum Universal Ltd, Parry Agro Industries Ltd, Ambadi Enterprises Ltd and few other group entities — have divested their shareholding (100 per cent) in Laserwords.

Carborundum Universal, a listed company, had controlling stake of 44 per cent in Laserwords. It has divested its shareholding in Laserwords for Rs 50 crore, Carborundum said in a notice to the BSE. Going by this, the valuation works out to Rs 113.6 crore.

Founded in 1983, Laserwords is an outsourcing partner for some of the leading educational, academic, and professional publishers. It provides a range of solutions such as production, editorial, multimedia, conversion and technology. In 2001, Carborundum, which is primarily engaged in manufacturing of abrasives, ceramics and refractories, acquired controlling stake in Laserwords.

Carborundum had invested Rs 27 crore in Laserwords, said a company spokesperson.

SPi Global, which has been in the content solutions business for over 30 years, has facilities in Chennai and Puducherry. It focuses on scientific, technical and medical publishing.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article2598431.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

Western powers in North America and Europe have long enjoyed the outsourcing of call centers to India, but could the outsourcing superpower start to take advantage of this overseas drive?

According to a report in the Washington Post, many call center operators in India are setting up their own overseas operations. These Indian companies have found lower costs without sacrificing infrastructure or government incentives in places like the Philippines and Malaysia.

“India absolutely cannot take the voice-based call-center business for granted anymore,” President of Corporate Affairs for Tech Mahindra Sujit Bakshi told the Washington Post.

Rising salaries and overall inflation in India have pushed the outsourcing superpower away from call-center work and more toward higher-end outsourcing jobs. India remains the best location for IT support and other higher-end outsourcing functions.

Source:http://www.supplychaindigital.com/outsourcing/india-outsources-call-center-work-to-the-philippines

Philippine outsourcing companies say they are aiming to snag up to 10 percent of the $270 billion global industry by 2016 and are focusing on training more workers to keep up with demand.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines says the country is now the world’s top supplier of call center operators and other voice services. It accounts for up to 7 percent of the overall market that provides banking, transcription, engineering, and other services to overseas clients — a far second to India’s 51 percent share.

Association chairman Alfredo Ayala said Tuesday the Philippines hopes to raise the number of workers from the current 600,000 to 1.3 million and to grow revenues from $11 billion this year to $25 billion by 2016.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QA1H1O0.htm

The Philippines outsourcing industry will grow strongly over the next five years despite global economic concerns and threats to its call centre sector, industry officials said Tuesday.
The industry is expecting to continue its rise from nothing 10 years ago to currently the world’s number-two player behind India with 600,000 workers, said Business Processing Association of the Philippines chief Alfredo Ayala.

“It may slow down, but it’s still going to be double-digit growth,” Ayala told reporters at an outsourcing conference in Manila.

Blessed with an English-speaking work force, the industry expects outsourcing revenues to rise at least 15 percent each year to $20 billion by 2016, when it would employ 900,000 workers, Ayala said.

He said the Philippines now accounted for 6-7 percent of the global market for all outsourced business services, second only to India’s 51 percent share.

Business outsourcing covers a wide range of services, from call centres to accounting, legal work, health care and information technology.

In the call sector centre alone, the Philippines last year overtook India to have the world’s biggest industry in terms of revenues and workers, largely on the back of catering to the United States and other English-speaking countries.

Foreign experts told the conference call-centre jobs would eventually decline with computer software replacing humans in such things as attending to customer complaints over merchandise.

Gillian Joyce Virata, senior executive director for the business processing association, said call centres still accounted for about 65 percent of the overall outsourcing business in the Philippines.

But she said the industry was preparing for the changes.

“The trend will continue for non-voice (roles) to grow at a faster rate. Back office, health care, creative services, and IT (information technology) are becoming quite attractive here,” she said.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told the conference that the outsourcing sector was now one of the country’s economic pillars.

He said the industry’s 2011 revenue target of 11 billion dollars would be equivalent to about 5.0 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.

“The contribution of this industry cannot be overstated. It’s really a very big help. It has provided a very big support to the economic environment of the Philippines in the past decade.

Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/October/international_October410.xml&section=international

Citing the way Filipinos deliver their services through call centers and outsourcing firms in the country, the Philippines today was tagged as “rock” of the global IT and Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry.

“If before we call the Philippines as an important key in the field of outsourcing, we call it today as the rock of the global IT-BPO industry,” said Martin Noel Conboy, president of the Australian BPO Association, during this afternoon’s press conference of the 3rd Annual International Outsourcing Summit (IOS) at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel.

Conboy made the announcement with Alfredo Ayala, chairman of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP); Valentin Makarov, president of RUSSOFT Association in Russia; Gaurav Gupta, managing partner (India) of Everest Group; Nour Al Hmoud, director of Investment Promotion at Jordan Investment Board; Grace Castillo, head of enterprise segment of Globe Telecoms; and Albert Mitchell Locsin, vice president and head of corporate relationship management of PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.).

Ayala told reporters that over 400 delegates and 80 speakers from various countries took part in this year’s IOS, a high-level conference organized by BPAP to tackle the future of the global IT-BPO industry, particularly the development of non-voice and complex IT-BPO services.

BPAP reported the more than 50 percent of the summit’s audience composed of foreign nationals only shows the country’s significant role in the global IT-BPO industry that is expected to grow to $270 billion by 2016.

“Competition may be tough, but it opens a world of possibilities as well, especially for Asia. Our focus is on strengthening the country’s IT-BPO sector,” Lacdao said, as he reiterates BPAP’s strategies in creating stronger collaborations and partnerhips with the government.

Lacdao shared that President Benigno Aquino III is keeping a proactive stance towards the industry by way of his Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program, intending to extend this to infrastructure projects and to be applied later on to the local IT-BPO sector.

BPAP said that although voice service has grown globally by 20 percent since last year, non-voice is growing faster in services on back office, health care, IT, engineering, among others.

Conboy said the current outsourcing industry in the Philippines is no longer entirely made up of voice service, but more on non-voice and the challenge remains on how to attract the country’s rich pool of non-voice talents to work in the industry.

Conboy added that among the new non-voice talents that are in demand today are the country’s supply of workers who are skilled in social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Animation, according to Lacdao, remains a hot channel that the country can explore and develop fresh talents.

A study by The Everest Group revealed that Asia accounts for 21 of the 38 new delivery centers established in the second quarter of 2011. Aside from the Philippines, Brazil is considered a “mature” market location for IT services, while countries like Nicaragua and Kenya are emerging destinations for delivery centers.

Source:http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=736317

The Philippines has established itself as one of the top destinations globally for services outsourcing, being second only to India, the Philippine government said during the just concluded 58th Session of the Trade and Development Board in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Trade and Development Board, which oversees the activities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), opened its 58th session last month in Geneva to examine, among other issues, the implications of non-equity modes of international production, which include services outsourcing, contract manufacturing, contract farming, licensing and franchising.

Speaking before the members of the Board, Trade and Industry Undersecretary for Industry and Investments Cristino L. Panlilio pointed out that the Philippines’ cost competitiveness, excellent telecommunications infrastructure, large talent pool, strong public-private sector partnerships, and relatively low risk perception are among the factors that transnational corporations considered in selecting the Philippines for services outsourcing.

Services outsourcing in the Philippines includes voice business process outsourcing (BPO), non-voice BPO in finance, accounting, medical transcription, and other areas, and information technology – electronic service outsourcing (IT-ESO).

Panlilio disclosed that in 2010, the Philippine IT-BPO industry reached $9 billion in revenues, and engaged the services of 530,000 full-time employees in financial services, human resources, IT and software development, management services, engineering design, animation and other sectors.

He noted that the industry now accounts for 60 percent of the country’s total services exports.

In 2011, the industry is expected to generate US$11 billion in terms of services export revenues, and to provide employment to 640,000 people, he said.

The DTI official said that the IT-BPO Road Map forecasts growth to reach USD 25 billion in revenues and to employ 1.3 million workers by 2016 if key challenges are addressed.

In a statement on behalf of the Asian Group, the Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, noted that three countries — India, the Philippines and China — accounted for approximately 65 per cent of global export revenues related to IT-BPO services in 2009. In terms of licensing activity directed at developing markets, the region comprised almost 80 percent of the total, measured in terms of royalty payments in 2008.

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/336503/philippines-joins-top-bpo-destinations

The Philippines can take advantage of the popularity of mobile communication devices globally and be an outsourcing hub for mobile applications.

However, local developers, who currently supply the requirements of the worldwide Information Technology outsourcing industry in the field of web and enterprise solutions, need to shift their focus from enterprise solutions to mobile apps.

Although the country is currently lagging behind the field of mobile apps, talented Filipino developers can supply apps for mobile platforms here and abroad and catch up with the demand, stressed Ramon Pastor of Numlock Solutions during a recent Power Mac Center mobile app development seminar.

“Worldwide, demand is higher than the supply. That’s why we have to encourage developers to go into mobile apps to take advantage of this growth,” he explained. “The Philippines can be on the world map for mobile apps. We want to tell the world that if they want apps, they can come to the Philippines.”

“The opportunity is here. More people are realizing that they can do a lot with their mobile devices, and are not limited to calling, texting, or checking emails,” Pastor went on.

Furthermore, “Companies are beginning to know that they can have apps made for mobile platforms, which is not this popular before. Demand for mobile apps in the next three to four years, will grow exponentially. And we are up to it,” he added.

Indeed, it does not help that in the past, big-name companies in the Philippines have tapped foreign IT consultants to develop apps for them, Pastor lamented.

“They’re not aware that mobile app development exists locally. That is why we have to drive people to join the industry. Demand is so high, they just go abroad. We hope that next time, we will be able to take advantage of this demand.”

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/334940/philippines-can-be-outsourcing-hub

The global economic slowdown has brought little detrimental effect on the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines. While many industries are on job-trimming spree, BPOs are hiring new workers and have even expressed plans to accept more job applicants in the near future.

Job cuts abroad have forced thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to book a plane ticket to fly back home. But all is not bleak in the $180 billion industry that continues to attract some of the best workers in the Philippines.

Take the case of Convergys, its continuing expansion manifests the minimal impact brought about by the economic recession across various countries in the world on the business process outsourcing in the Philippines. In fact, the company said, it foresees unimpeded growth this year and next year as the company gets new clients, most of which are US-based firms.

The equation is simple. During economic crunch, private companies in industrialized countries would seek higher profitability to sustain their operations, and one way to do just that is to minimize operating costs. So, these profit-seeking firms would start tapping resources abroad without hurting their budget. Some jobs at their home base must be wiped out, but the essential departments of the company’s operations such as customer service, accounting, and contact services must remain in the picture.

Early speculations spoke of a dreary fate of the Philippine BPO. Just as companies abroad are shutting down in the face of recession and other financial troubles, some have said, demand for outsourcing jobs in the third-world countries would automatically wane.

But the opposite scenario is happening. While it is true that a bankruptcy of one Western company means a loss of BPO client, say, in the Philippines, the current economic hemorrhage can also force other companies to seek human resources abroad to trim down operating cost.

Why is the Philippines a favorite choice of BPO investors? The country’s flexible workers, their English proficiency, and industrious job attitude remain the top reasons cited. Our educators should remember that without English proficiency of graduates, it is almost impossible to attract BPO clients here. The Filipinos can be that hard working, but without mastery of the English language, which is the universal bridge to connect the East and the West, hard work is only one part of the whole equation.

Today the country is the third largest source of BPO jobs, trailing behind giants India and China. In 2006 alone, at least 200,000 Filipinos are working in various BPO contact centers in the Philippines. The figure has almost doubled then. If we continue to make good in the BPO industry, its growth can keep tens of thousands of Filipinos stay at home and still act as breadwinners with their loved ones around.

Knowing that the BPO industry in the Philippines is contributing much to the country’s economic agenda, misguided government educators in Manila should stop hallucinating, insisting Tagalog be the medium of instruction in public schools nationwide.

We cannot allow backward mentality to hamper national progress.

Source:http://www.theboholstandard.com/editorial.php?issue=228&s1=3912&s2=&s3=&s4=1164&s5=3914&s6=&s7=1163&s8=1162&s9=&s10=&s11=&s12=1165&s13=&s14=&s15=

Having toppled outsourcing giant India in the call center market last year, the Philippine ICT industry is aiming to level up further this year as the government and the private sector team up to set ambitious revenue goals and draft long-term programs.

According to analyst firm XMG Global, 2011 should be a positive year for the country’s IT market with overall IT spending estimated to grow 11 percent to US$3 billion.

The BPO (business process outsourcing) industry, one of the country’s main revenue earners, is again leading the charge. Industry group Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) is targeting to hit US$11 billion in revenues in 2011, a 20 percent increase from estimated US$9 billion in 2010.

The Philippines last year dethroned India as the global call center hub, hitting US$5.7 billion in revenues against India’s US$5.5 billion and employing more call center workers than the former leader.

BPAP and the Philippine Commission on ICT (CICT) are projecting that the industry could create an additional 84,000 jobs this year, bringing the total number of IT-BPO workers in the country to 610,000.

The figures tally with XMG’s estimated forecast which revealed that the growth of talent employed in offshore services for 2011 will reach 651,425. “One of 12 employed professionals in Metro Manila will be working either in BPO, call center or IT services,” said Phil Hall, principal analyst at the research firm.

BPAP’s chief, Oscar Sañez, said in an earlier statement that aggressive marketing, both locally and internationally, will be key for the Philippines to achieve the US$11 billion-revenue goal. “We have to increase the awareness of our potential employees of job opportunities in IT and BPO companies, including those in the knowledge process outsourcing and other non-voice sectors. We also have to improve our visibility internationally to market new services in new territories,” he said.

Sañez also noted that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in December 2010 had pledged to allocate 62 million pesos (US$1.4 million) as “BPO promotions fund”, adding that the amount would help the industry achieve this year’s revenue goal.

Focus to include broadband, digital TV
For the CICT, the government agency in charge of the local ICT market, boosting the BPO sector is just one part of the “digital strategy” which spans 2011 to 2016.

Ivan John Uy, who heads the agency, told ZDNet Asia in an interview that the five-year plan–which will be launched soon–aims to enhance the country’s software, telecoms, e-government and postal sectors.

This year, the CICT is coordinating with various academic and non-formal education institutions to “re-tool” jobless college graduates and youths, Uy said. “For instance, our nursing graduates who don’t have work yet can be trained to become medical transcriptionists and healthcare support specialists,” he said.

He cautioned that the country has to quickly replenish or augment its BPO manpower base. “We run the risk of [skills] shortage. We have lots of jobless people around but they don’t have the skills,” Uy said, adding that the government is also looking at the possibility of offering a “study now, pay later” scheme for the unemployed.

The CICT this year will also be preparing for the country’s migration to digital TV, he said, elaborating on plans for the local telecoms sector.

Last year, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)–which operates under the CICT–selected a Japanese digital TV standard which broadcast companies must adopt by 2015.

Uy explained: “As part of our preparations, I’ve directed the NTC to organize a technical working group to draft, within the year, implementation rules and regulations (IRR) which would also serve as a guideline for broadcast companies.”

Touching on the private telecoms sector, XMG said increased competition will force mobile operators to roll out better pricing, especially with regard to data plans and long-distance charges.

“[Leading] service providers will be those that can leverage their wireless and extended bandwidth capabilities,” noted Hall, who is based in Manila. “Price, services and local content provisioning will be the dominant lure and battleground, as social networking continues to grow dramatically and cuts into the SMS market.”

In the broadband space, the XMG analyst said subscriber base growth will be propelled by intense competition which will push down the prices of entry-level packages.

“Competition is increasing between fixed-line, cable and mobile providers,” he said. “Among telco giants PLDT Smart and Globe Broadband, subscribers will continually lag behind cellular subscription. However, broadband will continue to remain [these operators'] growth area [and see] double-digit growth, making it an important revenue stream for all carriers.”

Given the increasing demographics of Filipinos who are clamoring for better quality of service and pricing both at home and on-the-move, consumers are unlikely to stick to a single provider when buying broadband services, he noted.

“[To lead the market], service providers will need to develop loyalty programs and provide attractive pricing and bundling schemes,” Hall said. “Internet TV will not take traction in the Philippines yet, but we foresee tie-ups between TV content providers and Internet for on-demand replay of shows. Watch for PLDT Group’s TV5 as they strategically evolve to become the natural fit to take on this leadership role.”

An interoperable government
Turning to e-government initiatives, Uy said the CICT will be pushing for interconnectivity and interoperability between IT systems deployed across different government agencies.

“Each agency has its own GIS (government information system) and data center which do not talk to each other. ICT adoption in the government is extremely low and fragmented,” he revealed.

XMG, though, is not expecting any major leaps in this area this year. Hall said: “However, if the new Aquino government follows its stated plan, we anticipate a slow progression from more use of IT in government departments to true e-government applications during this presidential term.”

With regard to the country’s postal service, which falls under the domain of the CICT, Uy said reforms are underway to transform post offices across the Philippines into self-sustaining community e-centers.

He noted that the Philippine Postal incurred losses totaling 300 million pesos (US$6.8 million) last year. “We need to fix this and install a new business model.”

Beyond the government sector, XMG said the Philippines can expect to see IT developments in other areas including social networking, consumer electronics, green IT, cloud computing and software development.

According to Hall, social networking activities in the country will see continued growth through 2011 and beyond. “Facebook and Twitter are taking market [share] from SMS,” he said. “Like e-mail and the mobile phone before, these are culture-changing products and we have not seen their full potential yet.”

“Expect more developments for use of social networking in business, but also expect higher levels of advertising, spam or its equivalent, viruses and other intrusions,” he added.

XMG also expects tablets to claim its ascendancy in the gadget race.

“Most major manufacturers are due to release their first models in first-quarter 2011, while Apple is due to announce iPad 2,” Hall said. “With the rise of the middle-class and tech-savvy Gen X and Gen Y Filipinos, expect to see these gadgets in local coffee shop. With a wide range of devices and operating systems, there will be no leader but expect Apple to remain strong, followed by Samsung and RIM.”

Elaborating on cloud adoption, the XMG analyst said IT vendors are expected to grow their enterprise offerings through the public cloud. “However, we do not anticipate well-established companies with significant investment in IT to [migrate] their ERP systems or legacy applications just yet in 2011,” Hall noted.

He said enterprises will need new software that built to be deployed on the cloud as legacy systems are not designed for such implementation.

He also pointed to green IT as a growth area for the Philippines as high utility costs in the country make a good case for the deployment of energy-efficient hardware and virtualized servers.

“The adoption of green IT practices will increase, albeit slowly, over the next 12 months primarily due to newer hardware refreshes,” Hall said. “Unlike other green-conscious economies such as Singapore and Korea, businesses and industries in the Philippines must still collectively make a commitment to saving the environment and reducing carbon emission footprint generated by technology.”

Source:http://www.zdnetasia.com/bpo-to-take-philippines-to-higher-ground-62206416.htm

Has the Philippines surged past India, its bigger outsourcing rival and a Business Process Outsourcing superpower, as the world’s favorite back office?

The latest industry figures suggest that, to the consternation of India-based outsourcing industry, the Philippines has surged past India, recording US$5.7 billion in pure voice-based revenues so far in 2010. That is compared with US$5.58 billion for India. Voice-based work accounts for nearly half of India’s total outsourcing exports, valued at US$12.4 billion.

The Philippines, the second largest BPO industry in the world, has been snapping at India’s heels for a while now, with an industry built on cheaper manpower, tax breaks and government investment in infrastructure. The island nation currently ranks number one in the availability of knowledge-based jobs and workers and fourth in labor quality in all of Asia, according to a study by the US-based Meta Group.

India’s position, on the contrary, has eroded significantly as the number one choice of US companies for backroom operations, suggests a survey by Michigan-based Kelly Services Inc.

More and more small and medium-sized American companies appear to have been voting with their feet for the Philippines over India as their BPO headquarters of choice. A raft of global companies – like MSN-Microsoft, Cisco, HSBC, AT&T, IBM, Washington Mutual, Sallie Mae, Expedia, Intuit, Transunion, Alltell and Bellsouth — have already shifted work for their outsourcing needs.

Even Indian BPO majors have opened large centers in pockets like Metro Manila, Cebu City, Davao and Angeles. According to The Economic Times, EXL has a centre in Pasay with more than 800 employees. IBM and Accenture are estimated to have more than 20,000. Convergys this year announced plans to hire about 3,000 people around Manila, while Sitel plans to hire 4,000. Aegis also acquired Philippine outsourcing company PeopleSupport for US$250 million in 2008.

Powering the Philippines growth story are the burgeoning call centers in pockets like Manila, Cebu, and Davao City. Cheaper manpower, among other things, has made the Philippines a much more viable option in recent years, especially where medium-sized businesses are considered.

The US$9.5-billion Philippines O&O (off shoring & outsourcing) industry grew at a compounded growth rate of 27.6 percent in the last two years while India’s BPO industry trialed at less than half CAGR of 11.92 percent over the same period.

There are many reasons why the Philippines’ may well topple India. According to a senior National Association of Software Companies official: “High staff turnover of nearly 60 per cent remains India’s biggest challenge in retaining its supremacy as the world’s favorite BPO destination.”

“Don’t forget, India’s GDP is growing at a much faster clip than the Philippines,” the official said. “In 2009, Filipino GDP grew at 1 percent compared to India’s 7.4 percent.” This high growth rate gives the young Indian workforce the incentive to look for better job opportunities in other lucrative service sectors like finance, telecoms and insurance.

Staff tenure in India, the official added, is staggeringly low at only 11 months compared with the Philippines at 19 months. A prime reason for this, he says, is the scarcity of competing options in the Philippine employment sector.

“The Philippines also enjoys other advantages over India like a better affinity with western culture and a politically stable environment,” said Prabhu Nivare, a Mumbai-based IT consultant. “Add to it higher tax incentives and business-friendly policies and it explains why the Philippines has emerged as a threat to India.”

Analysts also point out that during the financial crisis, the Philippine government invested heavily in infrastructure that allowed the nation to compete better globally.

Moreover, IT and outsourcing enterprises in the Philippines enjoy a 100 percent tax exemption for up to eight years. The island country also provides cost benefits for infrastructure, operational expenses and business continuity.

“The Philippines has gained prominence as it remains a less expensive option,” Nivare said. “In some specific industries, employee costs in India have spiraled up to 60 percent of comparable costs in the US while in the Philippines the corresponding rise has been only 30 percent.”

This development is all the more ironic considering till 2008, the Philippines revenue in the BPO sector stood at US$6.8 billion while India recorded US$11 billion.

Another comparative advantage the Philippines enjoys is the superiority of its telecom infrastructure which is more safely set up and maintained because of attractive economic incentives and highly skilled human resources. Kelly Services in Michigan found out that the Philippines has the highest agent productivity in the region. “Filipino call center agents handle an average of 107 outbound and 98 inbound calls in a day compared to Indian call center agents who can only handle 78 outbound and 73 inbound calls per day”, reported Kelly.

The high quality of the Philippines’ workforce, assert analysts, is sustained in part by its impressive literacy rate of 93.4 percent according to the United Nations Development Program as compared to India’s figure of 61.0 percent.

“Apart from offshore software development and other IT services, the Philippines has also been aggressively tapping the global animation market, which is growing phenomenally,” says Satish Parashar, CEO of Horizons, an offshore advisory firm.

Major animation studios like Marvel, Disney, Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera and Japanese anime studios like Toie, Parashar said, have already established their presence
in the Philippines.

In a paper titled “The Great Call Center Debate: India vs the Philippines,” an official of a top US-based BPO company noted the advantages enjoyed by Filipinos over Indians in the industry.

“Filipinos speak idiomatic American English better than Indians, and their accent is more neutral. The Philippines is an outstanding destination for a wide variety of offshore services. They have gained great traction especially in voice work,” wrote Chris Repholz, senior vice president of the outsourcing company Zenta.

The paper also cited “better affinity with the American culture, lack of competing industries for skilled workforce, and higher tax incentives” among the leading reasons behind “the unprecedented rise of the Philippines’ BPO industry.”

The goal to overtake India is part of the five-year (2011-2016) road map for the Philippine information technology and BPO sector. The objective is to expand it to a US$25-billion industry employing 1.3 million people.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) in its first in-depth study of the workplace in the four top BPO destinations in the world — India, the Philippines, Argentina and Brazil – the working conditions in the Philippine BPO industry are of “reasonably good quality” compared with those in developing countries.

The study, titled Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work, said that Filipino BPO employees earn 53 percent more than workers of the same age in other industries. The average monthly salary is P16,928 (US$388.70), with benefits such as meal and transport allowances. Hours of work in the BPO industry are also quite reasonable by local standards, in stark contrast to the often excessively long hours of many workers in the developing world including India

So is this reason enough for serious concern on the part of the Indian outsourcing industry? Yes and no, Indian analysts say. While many feel there is enough business for everybody in the exponentially growing global market, others are not so sure.

“India retains its core advantages and won’t be so easy to dislodge from its frontrunner position,” Nivare says. “Each year, 120,000 IT professionals enter the Indian workforce because of an education system that lays an overt emphasis on science and math.” That is not true of the Philippines educational system, which has come under considerable criticism.

“Bandwidth in India is also far superior due to their private undersea cable and the state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd,” says Brahm Gutgutia, a Hyderabad telecom entrepreneur and an IIT alumnus. “Telecom rates are quite low as a result of the industry’s privatization. Furthermore, software development remains a very lucrative business in India, attracting IT giants such as Microsoft, IBM, HP and others,” adds the businessman.

Even so, the Philippines, according to industry estimates, is expected to grow at a steady pace of at least 20 percent annually in BPO exports over the next five years. Given this environment, Indian BPO outfits would do well not to be complacent. They should instead focus on launching more innovative products and checking staff turnover.

The Indian government too, should sit up to take note and work towards improving the country’s security environment and promoting business-friendly policies before it’s too late, the analyst say.

Source:http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2828&Itemid=232

Companies in the Philippines’ Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector are increasingly optimistic that their businesses will grow substantially in the next 12 months according to the most recent industry survey conducted by Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and Outsource2Philippines (O2P). The survey also revealed that the shift to non-voice and more complex services continues to accelerate.

The results of the survey are being revealed today by BPAP and O2P in the second in a 2010 series of regular breakfast briefings for senior executives. As in the case of previous surveys, this one showed that industry has a strategic concern that could undermine an otherwise rosy outlook. That concern is people. As the industry grows, the shortfall in qualified personnel is becoming increasingly critical.

Much of the world remains mired in recession and economic uncertainty, but that appears to be benefitting the BPO industry as North America and EU clients pursue alternatives for lowering costs while maintaining or increasing services standards. For many smaller BPOs, a significant portion of their client base is closer to home in Asia, where economies are growing faster. They are benefitting from relative regional prosperity.

Industry executives are also upbeat over the improved political perspective of the Philippines. Respondents indicated that the smooth conduct of national elections in May was viewed positively by investors and clients, and over 80% said the smooth transition of power from the previous administration to that of Benigno S. Aquino III had a positive effect on investor perception. Only one percent said the transition had less than a somewhat positive effect on perception of the Philippines by investors.

Although the industry believes it enjoyed a cordial relationship with the administration of former president and now congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, respondents said they anticipate an even more productive relationship with Mr. Aquino’s government. That positive outlook may have something to do with the regulatory and incentive environment, which respondents view as good, but not necessarily competitive. They appear to be looking to Mr. Aquino’s administration for improvements.

But just how rosy is the outlook, and where do the opportunities lie? To be succinct, the positive perspective is almost profound, with 65% of respondents indicating their companies will grow between six percent and 50% in the next 12 months. Another 15% say their organizations will grow even faster across a range of sectors. Virtually every value-added sector is growing, including IT services, marketing services, engineering services, value-added back-office processes, content services, and medical knowledge process outsourcing services.

Executives will probably be quick to caution that things could still go wrong, nevertheless. Although not a topic of the current survey, competition is on the rise, for one thing. When I asked a prominent investor in financial shared services last week about competition for investment, he cited Central and South America—specifically Costa Rica—Egypt, and some eastern European nations, particularly Poland. He also said China is a threat. Increasing competition is the top one, two, or three concern for about 40% of respondents.

Increasing competition for investment suggests that the Philippines must ensure that its competitive positioning remains strong, signifying that the regulatory and incentive environment should indeed get the administration’s attention. The biggest threat, however, lies within the Philippines and is the people issue. There are two levels of concern. The first has to do with the availability of entry-level personnel, particularly as Philippine BPO moves up the value chain.

The tight labor market for these knowledge workers is the number one or two top risk area for almost half of respondents. Industry executives say it is imperative that they be able to hire more than the 5-10% of applicants that is presently the norm if the industry is to continue growing rapidly. While the availability of qualified workers has been a chronic issue for the industry, the latest survey indicates that concern is intensifying.

Developing and retaining middle managers is the second level of concern. More than half of respondents – 58% – say this is the number one, two or three most important development issue affecting their capacity to grow. As in the case of entry-level workers, concern over the capacity to develop and retain middle managers appears to be intensifying. This concern will only accelerate as the shift to non-voice, complex services accelerates further.

The BPO and shared services industry is in many respects an economic development miracle. It developed because conditions were positive for growth: Good infrastructure, good people, and a reform-minded government that desperately wanted to create jobs. It can continue to be a miracle, but for that to happen both industry and government must work together to address these concerns – while they are addressable.

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/270453/bpo-optimism

‘A smile through a phone,” that is the basic competitive advantage of the Philippines as a business-process outsourcing (BPO) location over other locations like India, so underscored Mohan Kulkarni, president of IP Contact Center Outsourcing Inc., during the panel discussion on Philippine Services Export Prospects in the Asian Institute of Management Business Leaders Forum yesterday.

My friends from the BPO and media sector who were there sent me this text message: “Then, Rajat Nag, Asian Development Bank’s managing director-general said in his keynote: ‘As a friend, I will not hold back my punches: What is the vision of this country? The Philippines has a tremendous ability not to think in times of crisis, and not to soar in the best of times…. The remittances have a tremendous ability to cushion shocks, but they also take away any incentives for any fundamental changes…. What is keeping [Filipinos in the BPO sector] from being analytical and logical [the competitive edge of India as BPO destination], and still able to communicate that smile through that call?’

Rajat Nag was effectively gently “nagging” the business and academic elite in that forum to think and act seriously on our nation’s niche: “I see the challenge for the new administration to strengthen the country’s fiscal position and to improve investment plans…. As a low-middle-income country, [the BPO sector may be a ] trap, if the country doesn’t seriously start thinking about its niche—of aspiring to move from call centers to knowledge-process outsourcing, from legal transcription to legal documentation: What are you going to be known for?”

Certainly no smile came across with my friends’ text messages. That globalization of “smile through a phone” at what cost? What price—social price—to raise the bar for BPO? To go rapidly from a start-up industry to infrastructure- and incentive-driven sector to value-adding/value-creating niche? One texted: “Didn’t I tell you, Father, that the No. 1 product selling in convenience stores in our BPO buildings were condoms, not energy drinks or chocolates? So now we have this mess of people thinking BPO workers are ‘unclean’ [HIV-AIDS prone] and the Church and the Department of Social Welfare and Development are at loggerheads over the condoms distribution with flowers on Valentine’s Day.”

Dorothy Day, founder of The Catholic Worker, came to mind. How would she handle this challenge? She, who reflected on her young years in her autobiographical novel, The Eleventh Virgin, as years of a “bohemian lifestyle…dissolute, wasted, full of sensation and sensuality.” Later, in The Long Loneliness, my favorite of her works, she recounts how, as she stood on a curb on the streets of Washington, D.C., watching the hunger march that the communist Americans organized to push for social legislation to combat unemployment, establish pensions, and provide relief for mothers and children in the hot summer of 1932, she felt joy at the courage of the marchers and bitterness at her new conversion to Catholicism: “I could write, I could protest, to arouse the conscience, but where was the Catholic leadership in gathering bands of men and women, for the actual works of mercy that the comrades had always made part of their technique in reaching the workers?”

BPOs are redefining what a “worker” means today, creating its own long loneliness. Contracted services. Pay-for-service. Deconstructed value chain. Bonus now, not tenure later. The millennial generation knows this new definition of worker more than we do. Yet something remains of exploitation of a work force, be it of the Great Depression or this Great Global Economic Crisis. I could almost hear Dorothy Day echo Peter Maurin, as she wrote further, “[We need to build] a society in which it is easier for people to be good…knowing that when people are good, they are happy.” In April 1933, Day and Maurin, in the depths of the Great Depression, came out with the first issue of The Catholic Worker, sold for a penny a copy on Labor Day. Dorothy Day underscored: “We called the paper The ‘Catholic’ Worker because at the time many Catholics were poor…who were criticized for a lack of social and political morality…those who worked with hand or brain, those who did physical, mental or spiritual work. But we thought primarily of the poor, the dispossessed, the exploited.” In April 1968, she wrote of “the faith that man is capable of change, of growth, of growing in love.”

Can we reconcile growing in love with developing a competitive need for rapid growth in a postcrisis Philippine economy with least social cost? Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate has a concrete advise: “The strengthening of different types of businesses, especially those capable of viewing profit as a means for achieving the goal of a more humane market and society, must also be pursued in those countries that are excluded or marginalized from the influential circles of the global economy. In these countries it is very important to move ahead with projects, based on subsidiarity, suitably planned and managed, aimed at affirming rights yet also providing for the assumption of corresponding responsibilities. In development programs, the principle of the centrality of the human person, as the subject primarily responsible for development, must be preserved. The principal concern must be to improve the actual living conditions of the people in a given region, thus enabling them to carry out those duties which their poverty does not presently allow them to fulfill. Social concern must never be an abstract attitude. Development programs, if they are to be adapted to individual situations, need to be flexible; and the people who benefit from them ought to be directly involved in their planning and implementation…. Solutions need to be carefully designed to correspond to people’s concrete lives, based on a prudential evaluation of each situation. Alongside macro-projects, there is a place for micro-projects, and above all there is need for the active mobilization of all the subjects of civil society.” May the next, new administration heed this advice.

Source:http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24449:smiling-bpos-and-catholic-workers&catid=28:opinion&Itemid=64

WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS), a leading provider of global business process outsourcing (BPO) services, has been recognized as ‘Best New BPO Locator of the Year’ at the 2010 International ICT Awards ceremony in Manila. Prabhakar Bisen, CEO of WNS Philippines, accepted the award on behalf of the company at the ICT gala awards night on March 25, 2010.

The awards are organized annually by the Business Processing Association of Philippines (BPAP) and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of The Philippines to recognize the achievements of individuals, companies and the industry.

WNS Philippines was recognized for the exceptional growth it achieved in the region over a short period of time. The company was also recognized for quality leadership, training and development programs, corporate social responsibility initiatives, and overall contribution to the ICT industry in the country.

“In a short span of 20 months, WNS Philippines has been able to demonstrate high performance on all fronts,” said Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services. “We are honored to be recognized by this prestigious award for our rapid growth and client success in the region. It is a testament to the quality of talent we have been able to attract and the exceptional work of our employees.”

WNS launched its Philippines operations in July 2008 and has increased the number of employees in this region significantly since its inception. Its delivery centers in Cubao and Eastwood City in Metro Manila serve a broad range of clients in various industries, including telecommunications, consumer products, logistics, travel and financial services, delivering both front office and high-end back office operations.

Source:http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/information-technology/2010040547329.htm

Global financial technology solutions provider FIS is setting up shop here in the Philippines, with its first-ever call center in Pasong Tamo, Makati.

President Gloria Arroyo attended the inauguration of the facility, which currently has 150 employees to start with, but is expected to house a total of 1,000 seats in the next 18 months.

“We like to get a strong foothold in a country and build around that in the years to come. The Philippines is a strategic location,” says FIS Chief Operating Officer Gary Norcross.

Ram Chary, FIS SVP for Global Commercial Services, says about $5-million was spent for the facility, which will three major areas including integrated solutions, IT outsourcing, and business process outsourcing. Clients include banks such as Allied Bank, BDO, and ADB.

Norcross points out that while bulk of revenues come from US-based banks, FIS sees strong growth in Asia.

“Our goal is to broaden capabilities in this region,” he stresses.

The company posted revenues of around $5-billion in 2009, a flat growth from the previous year, due to the adverse impact of the global financial crisis. Norcross notes that, as was the worldwide trend, appetite for BPO services was dampened by a cautious environment. But this year, he says the outlook is much rosier.

“In the early part of 2009, we saw financial institutions in the world slow down their IT spending. It was a global phenomenon, but in the latter half, we saw FIs investing in IT technology again. That’s what we see continuing in the first quarter this year, and we expect to start seeing the economic benefits of growth in the latter half of 2010,” he says.

FIS supports over 14,000 financial institutions in more than 100 countries worldwide, through its 30,000-strong workforce. Bulk or 67% of its operations involve US banks, while 16% account for the international financial institutions, including Asia’s. The balance of 17% comes from non financial institutions such as healthcare and government services.

Source:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/02/17/10/financial-bpo-sets-shop-philippines

For about a decade, it was an image that best captured India’s growing links with the global economy. The image of young men and women hunched over desks sporting headsets and speaking into microphones, answering customer queries on credit cards to insurance policies and collections to telemarketing, captured India’s call centre boom.

It defined India as the “world’s back office”, much like neighbouring China, which has been immortalised as the “world’s factory”. But that may be changing.

The Philippines is fast upstaging India’s back office supremacy, with BPO service providers and customers seeming to favour the Pacific Ocean nation as a better place for “voice-related” work, the mainstay of the global outsourcing business.

“India has lost tens of thousands of jobs to the Philippines. The calibre of English is better and companies don’t have to put up with the mess (that exists in India) there,” says Pramod Bhasin, president & CEO of Genpact, India’s largest BPO company.

The “mess” that Mr Bhasin refers to includes arranging transport for employees, security, power back-up in offices, basic infrastructure that companies can take for granted in the Philippines and adds to costs in India.
Unsurprisingly, that country has become a preferred destination, especially with the US companies, many of which are more comfortable with the English accent spoken there. US customers account for over 50% of the global outsourcing business.

Ananda Mukherji, MD & CEO of specialist BPO provider Firstsource Solutions, says costs are more or less similar in both countries. This means the accent proficiency in the Philippines tips the scales in its favour.

Many of the Philippines’ advantages are thanks to the US rule, which bequeathed the English language to that country with its distinct accent along with a robust telecom and broadband network laid out by the US defence forces.

“To begin with, just 1-2 out of every 10 are recruitable for American accent voice tasks (in India). And even after training they are not quite as good as you get in the Philippines,” adds Mr Bhasin.

Adds Prabhakar Bisen, head of the Philippines operations of WNS: “Apart from affinity to the US culture and English-speaking skills, the country’s time zone advantages make the Philippines a natural choice for providing 24×7 service to global companies, particularly those based in the US.”

WNS is one of many companies that has set up shop in the Philippines, attracted by its “high-quality voice skills” and its status as the third-largest English-speaking nation in the world with a 94% literacy rate. And, it is not the only one.Genpact, Wipro BPO, Intelenet, Aegis BPO and Firstsource are all ramping up their operations. Genpact has about 2,000 employees in the Philippines and expects to scale up operations by 40-50% in the next 12 months. Firstsource has about 500 staff in Manila, while WNS has increased staffing to 1,100 from 200 in the past 18 months, delivering a mix of voice and back-office services for telecom, consumer products, travel and financial services clients.

In the past 12 months, Wipro BPO has set up a 1,000-seat centre in the Philippines’ Cebu City, with staff there engaged in telecom, healthcare, energy & utilities-related tasks.

The Philippines has also become the destination of choice for global firms, which in the past were big on India.

Convergys, the $2.7-billion world’s largest call centre company that for years prided itself on the fact India had the largest concentration of employees outside its home base — US, now has more people in the Philippines than in India. Convergys has around 12,000 employees in India, but is set to cross 20,000 in the Philippines.

StarTek, which provides customer services and technical support for customers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, has also opted for the Philippines over India.

Industry players reckon that India could have lost around 100,000 call centre jobs to the Philippines, although with annual revenues of $11 billion, India is still the largest player in the BPO sector, more than double of the Philippines’ $5 billion.

Although the call centre industry initially grew in India, quality concerns and infrastructure constraints have forced companies to look at other countries, and the Philippines has stepped into the breach. The high employee turnover in India also does not help — the BPO sector in India operates with attrition levels of up to 25% compared with less than 20% in the Philippines.

The government in the Philippines has seized the opportunity — it offers tax incentives to companies for setting up call centres and has a $100-million budget to train people for back-office jobs.

Som Mittal, president of software and BPO industry body Nasscom, acknowledges that the Philippines has grown, but says India’s BPO sector has also moved on from offering pure voice-based services.

He says India remains a lead destination for “services support”, while the Philippines is more about voice work for US customers and as a disaster recovery site.

“Within call centre work, India is preferred for scale and problem-solving type of tasks like technology help desks,” says Mr Mittal.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/ites/Indian-BPOs-lose-voice-to-Philippines/articleshow/5379192.cms

To support its recently launched cloud-computing platform, Mediaspectrum Inc. in Burlington, Mass., has named Affinity Express Inc., an offshore/onshore/onsite provider of high-volume advertising and marketing design solutions, as a preferred partner for outsourced creative services.

This arrangement extends the companies’ effort to streamline and transform ad production for publishers.

Mediaspectrumwork with Affinity Express began two years ago, involving a hosted version of Mediaspectrum’s AdWatch production workflow tools. After success at large newspaper chains, Mediaspectrum launched an effort to make AdWatch — along with its Ad Sales and ContentWatch applications — available as a widely hosted, on-demand solution. The result is Mediaspectrum’s cloud-computing platform, introduced in September.

Affinity Express relies on more than 800 designers with expertise in more than 30 software programs. Its services and Mediaspectrum’s platform enable production departments to quickly and effectively implement digital workflows, eliminating time, cost and complexity associated with interactive and rich-media ads while improving quality and business profitability, according to Mediaspectrum.

Chicago-based Affinity Express provides high-volume advertising and marketing design services using production centers in Pune, India and Manila, Philippines.

Source: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/technology/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004052426

Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) lauded Iloilo City or being one of the top new wave cities in the country, during the opening of the Convergence 2009, here.

“Iloilo is number three, but you can do much to further improve,” Secretary Chua said as he urged the Ilonggos to “continue to work harder in order to attract more investments and create more jobs”.

The continued presence of Convergys and other Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) establishments in the Philippines is a solid validation of the numerous citations the country has received most recent of which is the Offshoring Destination of the Year Award given by the UK-based National Outsourcing Association in ceremonies held last week in London. The country also won the same award in 2007, Secretary Chua said.

According to the CICT press report, the Philippine BPO industry generated 6.1 billion US dollars in export revenues in 2008 employing close to 400,000 workers making the Philippines the world’s second biggest BPO player next only to India.

In 2004, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Eexecutive Order 269, creating the CICT to oversee the development of ICT in the Philippines, including ensuring the growth of the IT-BPO industry.

President Arroyo in one of her statements disclosed that “our BPO industry continues to boom as global cost-cutting is sent to outsourcing. The Philippines is ranked among the most attractive off-shoring destinations in the world because of cost competitiveness and more importantly the country’s highly trainable, English proficient, IT-enabled quality manpower”.

“BPO and e-services are key drivers of the economy, generating investments and jobs, alleviating poverty and improving the lives of the people. We are proud to be among the world’s leaders in these fields,” the President said.

The track sessions during the two-day activity were: The Philippine Cyber Corridor by CICT Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim; Bizspark (Techno Start-ups support) program- Ms. Joana Rodriguez, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Philippines; Technopreneurship Program- Ayala Technology Business Incubatioin Netrork Ayala Foundation; e-Serbisyo and eBayad: Toward Philippine Government Online; eLGU: Jumpstarting eGovernance in LGUs.

Also included were Kapihang BPO-IT, and industry-academe forum; Human capital development; and Information infrastructure development.

Secretary Chua said the CICT vision is to have an ICT-enabled society where citizens live in an environment that promotes access to technologies providing quality education, sustainable employment, efficient government service, and ultimately a better way of life.

Source:http://www.thenewstoday.info/2009/11/26/it.bpo.to.attract.more.investments.for.iloilo.city.html

Convergys, a major vendor of contact center technology, as well as one of the world’s largest providers of contact center outsourcing and consulting services, has announced that it is expanding its contact center outsourcing operations in the Philippines.

The company recently announced that it plans to hire approximately 4,500 more agents between now and the end of February for its 12 contact center facilities in the country.

Convergys (News – Alert), which has been seeing increased demand for its contact center technology and services, despite the recession, already has nearly 18,000 employees and plans to surpass 20,000 employees in the near future.

“Convergys contact center agents continue to deliver superior relationship management services on behalf of our clients and that’s why there’s a global demand for their expertise,” said Marife Zamora, Convergys vice president and country manager, in a release. “The continued demand from our blue chip international clients to place their operations either partially or fully in the Philippines is a testament to the quality of service our agents provide on a daily basis.”

Zamora encouraged Filipinos looking for contact center work to text “CVG” to 2600, or to email their resume to jobsph@convergys.com, to start the application process.

Earlier this month, Cavalier Telephone, a CLEC offering reliable and efficient telecommunications solutions for business, consumer and government customers, reportedly signed a license agreement for Convergys’ Smart BSS Solutions.

India continues to top the list of outsourcing nations, with six Indian cities in the top 8 outsourcing destinations, according to a global study.

The findings released Wednesday by CyberMedia’s Global Services and advisory firm, Tholons, pegged India’s IT-BPO (business process outsourcing) export services revenue at US$40 billion in 2008, and listed the six Indian cities as Bangalore, Delhi NCR (national capital region), Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune. The other two cities are the Philippines’ Manila NCR and Ireland’s Dublin City.

In the list of top outsourcing nations, India came out top, with the Philippines and China among the top 5.

The study found there were minimal shifts in rankings this year compared to last year, with the global recession slowing down the pace of outsourcing activity.

Despite decrease in global FDI (foreign direct investment) from US$1.9 trillion to US$1.7 trillion, India’s FDI inflow posted the largest increase globally at 46 percent in 2008, it added.

However, Ed Nair, Global Services editor, said emerging destinations are also vying for a share of the outsourcing pie. He added: “The dynamics between these destinations is ultimately determined by a host of factors, which forms the basis of this study. Also, in many ways, this study is a study in globalization at its most granular level.”

Avinash Vashistha, CEO of Tholons, said the search for an outsourcing destination is not just about lower cost: “[A CIO] must consider location, risk mitigation for business, cultural affinity and scalability of the skilled workforce.
“The service providers need to think through their offerings so as to differentiate as competitive advantage is rapidly vanishing, due to cut throat competition and market saturation.”

According to the report, the global outsourcing landscape has evolved significantly in the last five years. An increase in complexity and wide-scale expansion in both locations and outsourced processes has brought about differences between perceptions of offshore destination and actual location assessments, it said.

Source : http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62058816,00.htm