Sunday, December 5, 2010

...the call center industry

It's official: Philippines bests India as No. 1 in BPO


In fact, the country overtook India in these categories last year, according to IBM's latest Global Locations Trend Annual Report, released recently in New York.

India now ranks No. 2, the first time it was not in the leading position for these activities, according to the IBM report, launched in October but made available online last month.
"The Philippines has taken over the lead in the global ranking from India," the report said.
The IBM report said the Philippines offered a similarly attractive business environment for international business support functions as India. Unlike India's BPO hot spots, however, labor costs here have not increased as much.

On Thursday (December 2), the Contract Center Association of the Philippines said the country had become the call centre of the world, with around 350,000 Filipinos working in call centers against India's 330,000-strong workforce.

Revenues from the country's call center industry are also expected to reach $5.7 billion this year, higher than India's $5.5 billion, the CCAP said.
The call centre industry, which provides so-called "voice" services like customer support and sales, is part of the BPO industry.

Call centres make up 70 per cent of the BPO industry in the Philippines.
Currently, there are 600,000 Filipinos employed in the country's BPO industry, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.
India is here

In yet another sign of the Philippines' BPO dominance, Tata Consultancy Services, the information technology services, business solutions and outsourcing arm of India's giant Tata Group, opened its first BPO centre in Southeast Asia at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig on Thursday.
"We believe that the Philippines has a very high quality of talent that can represent the company before our Asia-Pacific customers and our global customers," said Vish Iyer, head for the Asia-Pacific region for Tata Consultancy Services.

Iyer also said Tata chose the Philippines because it "wants to be here to see the Philippine BPO industry grow from its current $9 billion (in annual revenues) to the projected $25 billion in 2016."
The BPO centre that Tata Consultancy inaugurated will have 400 seats, and a target of three clients, including Citibank.

Abid Ali Z. Neemuchwala, vice president and global head for business process services and process excellence, said the company expects to more than double this to 1,000 seats and a target of five clients two years from now.

The firm generated revenues of about $6 billion last year.

Following India in IBM's ranking of BPO leaders were the United States, Poland, China, Britain, Columbia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Australia, Egypt, Chile, France, Canada, France, Singapore and the Netherlands.

The IBM report said Sri Lanka was another Asian country that had succeeded in positioning itself as an alternative to India.

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