The BPO Boom in the Philippines
by Lelit Barrios, BHIPro
Monday, July 16, 2007
The coalescence of low cost and a suitable labor pool is actuating an upswing in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry of the Philippines.

The country’ s BPO Boom, though primarily led by the demand for offshore service call centers, has seen a tremendous growth surge in more high- end outsourcing services like software development, web design, animation, data and payroll entry, legal and accounting services, medical transcription, and shared services.


In 2006, the Philippines accrued offshore service generating revenues of $2.1 billion, placing third behind India and China. Pulling up 62% over the $1.3 billion it gained in 2004, and a brimming increase from the start of the decade when the outsourcing industry, then mostly concentrated in the capital city of Manila, had revenues of merely $24 million. Today, an estimated number of 200,000 Filipinos work in BPO companies, not only in Manila but in regional areas like Clark, Angeles City, Cebu City, Davao City, Cagayan City, to mention a few.

AIG, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Chevron, Citigroup, Dell, HP, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Siemens AG are among the major companies that already operate in the Philippines. While major studios like Disney, Marvel, Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera have maintained offices in the country as early as 1995.

According to a survey conducted by the U.S. based Meta Group, the Philippines ranked 1st in the availability of knowledge-based jobs and skilled workers worldwide, and ranked 4th among Asian nations in terms of labor quality. Beside the extensive supply of multi- skilled, efficient, duly trainable work force, the country is home to globally- competitive animators, managers and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) staff and engineers. These professionals are also particularly favorable in terms of their superior work ethic, high degree of trainability, distinct customer service orientation, flexibility, multicultural adaptability, and loyalty.

International investment consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. anticipates a shift from low capital costs to manpower qualification and efficiency as primary business requirements in the coming years. This outlook fortifies the Philippines’ position as an upcoming global contender in the BPO Industry.

The Philippines’ strategic location, the availability of prime real estate at low cost, increasingly effective and cost-competitive telecommunications and ICT infrastructure, with it’s expatriate-agreeable lifestyle, and it’ s progressively BPO-supportive government policies and incentives contributes to the over- all advantage of the country as a leading BPO destination.

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