Philippines to be Number 1 in BPO

PR Log (Press Release) – Sep 12, 2007 – BPO will be widespread and a family by-word in every Filipino household.

Without much fun fare, global marketing and globe trotting, the Philippines became a natural choice and a preferred destination by Global Business Process Outsourcing  (BPO) companies today.    This phenomenon came about just through word of mouth from existing BPO players in the country.   After setting their back offices in country BPO global players learned from their back office experiences how world class the Filipinos were when it comes to the voice services.    BPO companies realized how Filipinos were excellent in their command of fluent English with a neutral accent.

Today, the call center or contact centers has become widespread in major cities and a success story to all stakeholders.   As the word of mouth is passed on to other BPO players, the Philippines’ next challenge is to keep pace with the fast growing BPO Industry.  Our country should focus all its attention on TRAINING a good deal of human resource desired by the growing BPO industry.

The Brain drain of Filipinos leaving to seek for work abroad has been happening annually over the past years reaching its peak of 1 million Filipinos leaving to work abroad just for the year 2006 alone.  Information Communications Technology (ICT) through BPO is the sunshine industry sector that could provide the necessary alternative to the brain drain syndrome.
 
If we want the Philippines to become the global leader in outsourcing, the country’s thrust should center our attention to TRAINING.    ICT in my language stands for  - I for infrastructure  (the connectivity needed), C for content  –  (the software or application), T– for training  –  (provide the much-needed human resource).  

The global potential for outsourcing is in the trillions of dollars.  We can capture a major slice of that if we uplift and leap frog our educational and human resource training components.  The Philippines will only be number 1 depending on the absorptive capacity of the human resource needed by the growing and expanding global BPO industry.  

My thrust at the Philippines USA Business Club  (PUBC) of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry  (PCCI) of which I sit as ICT Committee Chairman had also been directed towards reaching out to the US BPO market.  50% of that global outsourcing market comes from the United States.  Our Kababayans in the US, to what is known to us as the Filipino Americans  (FILAm) can offer a steady and continuous supply of market as BPO marketing advocates while back home we continue our national BPO training programs through the educational institutions of learning which PCCI/PUBC intends to spread at the grassroots level.  

The plan is for PCCI/PUBC to create and establish ICT local chapters for businessmen to the different local chambers of commerce nationwide. My earlier advise to local businessmen then was to invest in back office provisioning but now we should also include BPO training centers to support the huge demand for human resource in the sector.  

PCCI/PUBC should already identify BPO champions in the local business chambers of commerce all over the country and create BPO training centers of excellence.  My vision is for BPO to become prevalent from the national down to the grassroots level.  

My energies will center on advocating high value BPO services rather than just the traditional voice services.    The non-voice services are, architectural  & engineering, finance and accounting, computer aided design, animation, software and wireless applications development and many others. Our ultimate goal and target is for BPO to become widespread and a family by-word in every Filipino household. - George C. Kintanar

About the Author:

George C. Kintanar is the Chairman of the Committee on Information Communications Technology of Philippines USA Business Club (PUBC) of Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).