Philippines pips India as BPO paradise

The Philippines is the world’s call-centre capital, but will need more graduates and better trained professionals if it’s to be a major force in the broader outsourcing market, where growth is in providing research and analytics for the legal, healthcare and financial industries.

In little more than a decade, the Philippines has overtaken India in running call-centres, helped by an affinity for the language, culture and work ethic of the US, its former colonial master.

The number of Filipinos offering a cheery “Have a nice day” while working the graveyard shift to answer calls on behalf of multi-national clients such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase now far exceeds India’s 350,000, and the government wants to double the market to $25 billion by 2016, employing 1.3 million workers.

But to do that, the Southeast Asian nation must convince investors that it has more to offer than just a huge pool of English-speaking population with an American accent.

Research firm Everest Group has forecast that the global business process outsourcing industry could be worth $220-$280 billion this year, with 90 per cent of that in non-voice work, providing more complex skills and services in research and analytics for lawyers, doctors and bankers.

In the Philippines, non-voice work last year accounted for just over a fifth of the total BPO revenues of $10.9 billion, but employed a third of the BPO workforce, or around 220,000 people.

“The goal is aggressive but achievable as long as we know one thing: that what got us here won’t
get us to where we need to be,” said Maulik Parekh, president and CEO of outsourcing services provider SPi Global, part of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co, the country’s most valuable listed company.

“A lot of the focus of the tripartite relationship between the government, educational institutions and the private sector has been about English language skills. We need to start to focus on how we can have a thriving healthcare, publishing, finance, human resource, procurement, IT-related BPO,” Parekh said.

India is expected to continue to dominate in outsourcing, with its first-mover advantage and skills in software development, but the Philippines has its eye on the non-voice market’s potential.

“While some providers are leveraging the Philippines for non-voice functions, the scale of work is relatively low. However, tremendous market potential exists if service providers can successfully manage constraints,” Nikhil Rajpal, partner at Everest said.