Tag Archive: Philippine Offshoring

1. Philippine cities climb in offshore IT destination ranking

   February 26, 2013 1:55 am Leave a Comment

   

   After being touted as the ‘next call center capital of the world’ by some high profile media establishments like Al Jazeera and The New York Times ,  there’s a new name that the Philippine’s being called lately – an alternative offshore IT hub.

   No wonder, the recent survey of IT and outsourcing consultancy Tholons rank Manila the third leading ITO destination in the world, replacing New Delhi and in effect break India’s monopoly of the three top spots. Bangalore and Mumbai are ranked first and second most favorite IT outsourcing destinations by companies.

   No wonder, the recent survey of IT and outsourcing consultancy Tholons rank Manila the third leading ITO destination in the world, replacing New Delhi. Breaking into the top three, behind Bangalore and Mumbai, in turn displaces India’s monopoly of the three spots.

   But Tholons believes that it is the people that remains to be a country’s best value proposition as an outsourcing hub.

   Tholons rank the 100 ITO hubs each year and Philippines’ ranking impresses the fast rate that the country’s making its ground well up high in the minds of foreign investors. Another city in the Philippines, Cebu was eight place, up one place from the previous year’s ranking. Five other ITO hubs in the country made it into the top 100.

   Two main factors brought the Philippines in the limelight – it’s ITO costs ranks among the lowest anywhere around the world while the third country with massive pool of IT works in the Asia Pacific, according to data issued by the Industry Development of the Information Technology and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology.

   Based on the government’s IT-Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) roadmap 2011-2016 issued in November 2011, the combined sector is seen pouring in $25-billion to government in 2016. As a result, there will be a steady supply of jobs for up to 1.3-million Filipinos. Current earnings of the ITO sector may double to $2-billion by 2016, according to the same report.

   To achieve the growth projections and help provide investors with continued offshore IT support, the biggest challenge to the Philippine government remains to that of improving infrastructure and shifting more focus on to education.

   When spending to infrastructure is to be increased, analysts are prodding the government to look into power supplies and communication links. As regards the incentives to outsourcing providers, the government might consider giving lower income tax rates.

   According to Oxford Business Group, a business consulting firm, the key cities of Manila and Cebu can keep the pressure on the country’s rivals in the ITO sector in the medium term. Oxford added that ITO is fast-becoming a major contributor to the economy, next to business processing and other outsourcing segments.

2. Manila Beats Delhi in New IT Outsourcing Ranking

   February 21, 2013 2:33 am Leave a Comment

   

   Manila is now the third favorite outsourcing destination to send IT works, replacing New Delhi. Cebu, another Philippine city, went up one rank in the top ten.

   The Philippines has exceeded the 5.6 year-on-year growth targets to post 6.6 percent improvement in the economy. Meanwhile in the fourth quarter of last year, the country has recorded a 6.8 percent growth rate, fuelled by the strong services sector.

   Just what we thought, the miraculous feat of the Philippines proved our assumption that it is only a matter of time until today when the country finally edges India from its top rank as the IT destination darling the world over.

   In the annual survey conducted by global outsourcing advisory firm Tholons, the research thinktank accounted the new momentum of the Philippines to the following factors: 1) cultural and accent similarities with the Americans; 2) standard of living is low, which as a result makes doing business here more competitive than our foreign counterparts; and, 3) the generally-positive perception of the business process outsourcing careers.

   Tholons has also identified the strong support that the Philippine government is giving to foreign investors, particularly in making the country more attractive to outsourcing firms by way of grants and infrastructure developments.

   Manila was ranked the third best while Cebu City went up one rank in the top ten. While Bangalore holds the No. 1 rank and six of India’s outsourcing-oriented cities entered the top ten ranking, it was the Philippines who is showing significant progress through the years. Ankita Vashistha, Tholons managing director, underscored the rising costs of doing business in India: “Infrastructure and quality of life are also under pressure in Indian cities and these could impact growth in the future.”

   Times of India added in its report that US-based customer management solutions firm Convergys has already 18 call centers set up in the country. Another US-based company, UnitedHealth has back-office operations in Taguig City. In Cebu City, EXL is opening its third center while IBM has expressed plans to grow its BPO services in the country, which will be geared toward providing higher value analytics and high-value customer support services. Wells Fargo & Co has its business support center established in Taguig City while JP Morgan Chase has expanded in the country’s capital Manila through its 1,000-employee facility.

   The Tholons report also indicates the outsourcing growth in the major cities of countries like Malaysia, as well as Latin America.

3. Philippines’ call center image is improving – Al Jazeera

   February 20, 2013 4:56 am Leave a Comment

   

   The Philippines continues to sizzle as a hot outsourcing hub favored by most companies in the U.S. and Australia. Al Jazeera cited the country’s stable geopolitical climate, skilled and competitive workforce, and low cost of doing business as reasons it deserve the new title – the Call Center Capital of the World.

   Not blind to notice the progress, the prestigious global media network featured the booming outsourcing sector in the Philippines through a documentary last January 22, 2013. Running a total of 25 minutes, the investigative report made by Drew Ambrose details the fast growing industry, the limits to such growth as well as challenges ahead.

   As one of the most prominent English-language Arab news networks in the world, Al Jazeera’s documentary is remarkable. For one reason, it is a growing evidence of the generally-positive reception given by global media. Al Jazeera is also known for its independent yet eclectic taste when it comes to the selection of issues and global affairs that it feature. In effect, the media exposure is a big boost to the Philippines’ new emerging industry of outsourcing.

   Outsourcing is a business strategy that many foreign companies are seeking to get the most out of their investments to low-cost countries like the Philippines and India. Other countries in South America are considered major offshoring hubs as well as those from Ukraine and Ireland in Europe.

   And call center services is just one of the many back-office operations that small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as multinational corporations, are getting from offshoring companies in Manila. Technically, the operation of a call center involves the setup of a workforce or a virtual office capable of handling non-core functions such as customer support, outbound sales, and marketing.

   With the unprecedented growth of the call center industry, Al Jazeera noted that the sector is helping pull the country’s economy up. Already established in the Philippines are prominent names like Accenture, Convergys, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, IBM, and ANZ Bank from Australia, among others. Call center operations can be found in the major cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Taguig and Cebu.

   Compared to their counterparts, Filipinos are well-versed in American English, as well as educated and skilled. While observers note that the English fluency of the Filipinos are exeptional, this is hardly a new phenomenon because the Philippines has formerly been a nation ruled by the Americans.

   Today, the call center industry is just a decade old but now comprises of more than 420,000 workers, accounting to five percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product or GDP, or roughly $11-billion in revenue.

4. Big Outsource Goes Live

   February 19, 2013 6:26 am Leave a Comment

   

   Today we’re launching our blog alongside the new BigOutsource.com site. Starting today, we’ll feature news and industry trends about the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines and everything that’s related to its phenomenal growth.

   This blog will also highlight some corporate developments in terms of expansion plans, job openings, promotions, and more. Thus, the Big Outsource blog is every bit about us and what we aspire to achieve and offer in the burgeoning BPO sector in the Philippines.

   Enter our short short history about how we started as an outsourcing player. From being a digital agency several years ago, we are convinced putting up our outsourcing business will resolve some of our concerns in recruiting top Filipino talents.

   In waiting for the right timing for few years we’ve arrived to this point. Combined with our persistent desire, passion, optimism and hardwork, we thought this is the time – to dive in the waters of outsourcing.

   Finally, we are one of the players in the offshoring space. Armed with our always positive spirits, professionalism and dedication, a few years of waiting is now getting its most awaited debut in the offshoring side of business.

   For the meantime, head on to our main Big Outsource website and explore who we are, where we are located, what we envision to do with our business and eventually contribute to society in general.

   Don’t forget to watch our Big Whys videos. They all pretty explain why you should choose us, why the Philippines is a hot outsourcing hub, and why outsourcing is worth giving a try.

   Explore the Solutions section of the site where you’ll see outsourcing solutions which are diverse, tried and tested. Currently our outsourcing solutions are four but you can either get just one or a combination of the other services that we offer depending on the context of your business.

   The Disciplines section list down the services you can get from Big Outsource. It’s there you’ll discover we do not limit the services that we offer. We are not only hiring and recruiting the best call center talents.

   We also look for the best and most competitive content creators such as writers, copywriters and transcriptionists to create content for your website. We also have other experts who specialize in the development and design of website and mobile experiences.

   These and more important and good news will be circulated around our blog. So please join us in this ride.