Business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines turned out to be good since its birth in the year 2006. Who would ever think that many business investors will flock in this country because of the promising opportunities that await? It’s a win-win situation actually – firms get a good rate of profit from their international clients while Filipino BPO workers get compensated a lot better.
Although many BPO companies were already established in this country, this line of business is still considered as an “emerging industry”. Since the year 2006, BPO rate has increased to 46% annually. This is because many companies demanded and are still demanding for “off-shore call centers”.
Although Filipino workers are being paid with a nice rate by these firms, the compensation does not affect the companies that much because of cheap labor rate here in the Philippines. So if the company is paying workers in dollars, it might cost them to invest about $6-8.00 per worker per day. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the thousands of dollars that international clients pay for the BPO company’s services. As a matter of fact, Philippines is considered as the third largest business process outsourcing destination next to Canada (27%) and India (37%).
The fast growth of BPO industry led to a plan of hiring 900,000 more people back in the previous year. Seeing the consistent success in this line of business, the Philippine government stepped in the process and created strategies that will strengthen the BPO industry in the country. Fiscal and non-fiscal incentives were offered to attract foreign direct investments. This plan can be sourced from the 2007 Investment Priorities Plan.
A big percentage of the BPO facilities were established in the “First Tier” cities like Metro Manila and Cebu. Third Tier sites that are located in regional places were also put up with BPO firms. Some of these places are:
Urdaneta City
Angeles City
Baguio City
Bacolod City
Olongapo City
Cagayan de Oro City
Tacloban City
Lipa City
Legazpi City
Iligan City
Dumaguete City
Davao City
Many people think that call center industry and business process outsourcing industry are just the same. It’s actually a common misconception. A call center industry is under the BPO industry. Not all BPO companies have incoming and outgoing call processes. There are some BPO industries that make websites for big clients, some offer finance, logistics and accounting services, managing services legal and medical assistance and software development.
On the ther hand, call centers are the companies that provides BPO services through phone calls. Customer service is the hint here. Due to the high demand rate of call centers in the Philippines, this line of business comprised 80% of the entire outsourcing industry in the country. Here are some of the call center companies in Metro Manila:
Convergys
Stream Global
Accenture
Ambergis
Teleperformance
eTelecare Global Solutions
Teletech
IBM
HSBC EDP
Aegis People Support
Tens of thousands of people are employed in some fo the BPO companies in the Metro Manila alone. The number of “seats” continue to grow because more and more BPO investors are venturing in the Philippines. Sprouting firms will give more jobs to Filipinos which can be beneficial for them, but some will think otherwise. Well, some people don’t really give a high regard for BPO jobs. As what was mentioned on the first part of this article – it’s a win-win.